Forget Me Not
by October Sky
Summary: Alex takes Jack out to investigate the newly found tail section, while the discovery of an island mystery may prove to be the solution to Shannon and Sayid’s rocky relationship.
1. Default Chapter

Forget Me Not

Chapter One

Note on series: This story is part of a series, which can be found in my bio page, along with an order list.

Disclaimer: _Lost_ belongs to J.J Abrams and co. at ABC.

IMPORTANT!

Due to the fact that I was actually right about some things in the finale, I've decided what I want to keep and take out in this fic, so pay close attention so you don't get confused!

1. I'm keeping my plot with Claire and the_ Black Rock_, and the B.R. being connected to the hatch, which should be a big hint to things later on in this story. This means that Claire has had her baby, but it was when she was taken by Ethan, and they believe it to be dead.

2. The Locke/Boone background stays the same. I think I'm in love with it.

3. My version of the Jack/Sarah story remains in play in this fic, but the only thing is: does Jack know the kid's actually his?

4. Everything's that's been done with Kate in the show is now taking place here too, so that includes that part about the plane. However, I am keeping the plot about how she killed her father, it just wasn't him who gave her the plane.

5. I'm keeping every plot I've used with Sawyer, except for why he was in Australia.

Also note: That I'm still not sure who I want to do flashbacks on in this story. I'm thinking Shannon, because I'd like to do someone different, but I'm not sure. I think that the next fic will be Jack-centric, or Boone-centric. I also want to do a Sawyer-centric fic, but I don't have the slightest idea of what the island story will be about. And a Danielle story- now that one I'm excited about doing. Let's all be surprised.

Summary: Alex takes Jack out to investigate the newly found tail section, while the discovery of an island mystery may prove to be the solution to Shannon and Sayid's rocky relationship.

Fire does things to you. It puts you to sleep, keeps you awake, and it makes you think. It traps you inside within yourself. Thinking about fire reminded Alex of an old song she had once heard on the radio. She wasn't sure who it was by, maybe Willie Nelson, but it was something about a burning ring of fire and going down, down, down. Funny how little things like that popped into your head when you were alone on an island.

Of course, she wasn't totally alone. Jack was there for her, as he had made a point in saying just three nights before. But the past three days had been the loneliest she had ever experienced. Three days of sitting on the beach, staring into fires. She couldn't even sit by the shore anymore, because all that did was bring back memories of her recent encounter with Adam, and just the thought scared her half to death.

"I guess this is yours," Jack said from behind her, breaking Alex from her thoughts as something heavy landed on the ground beside her.

Moving her head for what felt like the first time in weeks, Alex saw that Jack had dropped her backpack beside her. She hadn't even bothered going back to the caves for it, and almost didn't want to. Everything about her past haunted her, and Alex was more afraid than she had ever been. She didn't want to know dead people, didn't want to be able to talk to them.

"How're you doing?" Jack asked, though Alex knew he had his own theories.

"Just fine," Alex muttered, not giving so much as another glance to the only key left to her past.

Not buying it, or maybe just wanting some company, Jack swung his leg around the log Alex was sitting on, and sat down. He looked at her, watching her watch the fire, waiting for the right moment to speak again.

"I've been worried about you," Jack admitted, finally, "everyone has."

"No they haven't," Alex said with a snort.

"What makes you think that?"

"I hear them talk about me," Alex said quietly, "like I'm some burden. They're afraid of me- my mom. Like we're aliens or something."

"They just aren't sure how to react," Jack said, though he knew that wasn't entirely true, "they'll come around, but until then, you can't let it bother you. If you keep living like this-"

"I told you I'm fine," Alex said with slight aggravation, and looked over to Jack, making eye contact with him and then glancing back down to the ground again.

"You've been sitting out here for days," Jack told her, as if she didn't know this, "you haven't been eating, sleeping. Come to the caves, get yourself cleaned up. Your mother's worried about you."

"If she's so worried about me then why did she have to send her messenger to talk to me?" Alex said dully.

"She just not sure how to handle things right now," Jack said, beginning to sound like he was an expert with estranged relationships, "this is just as new to her as it is to you."

"Yeah?" Alex said, not convinced. "The only difference is that this is all her fault."

Jack looked at her.

"What makes you think that?"

"You heard her," Alex said, her voice suddenly full of hatred, "how my father must of 'moved me to LA'. Yeah, well where was she?"

"Crashed on some island in the South Pacific," Jack replied, though the question was rhetorical.

"Not according to my dad," Alex shook her head, "he said she died in a car crash. Why would he lie about that?"

Jack let his shoulders droop, defeated.

"I'm sure she'll tell you when you're ready to know," Jack said, standing up, "but it looks like you've got it all figured out, so-"

"Wait!" Alex said, jumping up.

Jack stared at her, waiting for her to go on.

"There's something I should've told you a few days ago," Alex said, looking down to avoid his silence that followed and his eyes, "I..um.." she finally had to look up at him, "I found the tail section of your plane. Flight 815."

"What?" Jack said, stunned. "Are- are you sure? Where?"

Alex looked at him, as if trying to figure out if Jack would be up to the trip.

"I'll show you," Alex said, "if you're up for it."

Jack glanced towards the jungle and nodded.

"I am."

(Space)

Shannon hid in the shadows of the caves as she listened to Michael and Sayid talk about a third raft they had begun building. Word had it on the beach that Alex had blown up the second, though no one had a clue as to why. She waited in the dark until her patience got the best of her, and she stepped forward in front of Michael and Sayid, shadowing them from where they sat on the ground.

"Did you need something?" Sayid said finally.

"Yeah," Shannon said, after staring at him for one second too long, "can I talk to you?"

Sayid glanced at Michael who shrugged.

"Go ahead," Michael said, "I've got to go catch up with Jin and Sawyer anyway, to see if they're willing to do this again."

At the mention of the word 'again', a cut on Michael's forehead suddenly stood out a mile to Shannon, and she wondered if that had been from the raft wreck. She gave herself no time to ponder this though, and waited until Michael was out of earshot.

"Something on your mind?" Sayid asked, immediately turning to the stream behind him, and reached down, splashing some of the cool water on his face.

"Yeah," Shannon said, annoyed with him, "you."

Sayid looked at her in surprise.

"Don't give me that look," Shannon scolded. "Why have you been ignoring me?"

"As if you don't know," Sayid sighed, shaking his head.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Shannon demanded.

"Why don't you ask Boone?" Sayid said, turning away from her and picking up some maps and drawings he had been studying with Michael.

"What?"

"I saw you two in the jungle the other day," Sayid said, standing back up and facing her, "maybe next time you two should pick a more private place to 'talk'."

It took a moment for Shannon to realize what he was talking about.

"Oh _that_," Shannon said, rolling her eyes, "that was over a week ago!"

"You kissed him!" Sayid protested, disgusted.

"He kissed me!" Shannon corrected. "And I'm guessing you didn't stay long enough to see me slap him."

Sayid grew silent, and looked down, thinking of how to react to that mistake.

"I'm sorry," he said finally, "I did not know."

"Yeah?" Shannon said. "Well just a hint, the next time you decide to stop talking to someone for a week, make sure that they actually did something to deserve it."

"I'm sorry," Sayid said again, "is there anything I can do to make up for it?"

Shannon smiled at the offer.

"Want to go for a walk?

(Space)

"So how's it been going?" Locke asked as he and Boone made their way back to camp for the night.

"Excuse me?" Boone said casually.

"The withdrawal," Locke said, glancing back to Boone, who had been lagging behind.

"What are you talking about?" Boone said, nervously picking at a bug bite on his neck.

"I'm not blind Boone," Locke said, sidestepping a log that stuck out of the ground, "anybody who crosses your path can see that something's wrong. You might was well tell me now rather than later. You ran out of the drugs, didn't you?"

"Not so much ran out as- lost them," Boone flushed in the dark, embarrassed by how that sounded.

How could he lose something so important to his life?

"And Jack has no replacement drug?" Locke asked, and Boone was surprised that Locke was actually speaking like he cared.

"He's been giving me these sleeping pills to help me so I can go to sleep without yelling in my sleep or something," Boone said, "he's acting weird about it though. I think the drugs might be his."

"We all have our secrets," Locke said wisely, as if expecting to hear exactly what Boone had said.

"So are you ever going to tell me how you got that hatch open?" Boone said, desperate to get the conversation off of him.

Locke stopped to rest, and placed a hand on Boone's shoulder to steady himself.

"What's important now Boone," Locke said, avoiding an answer, "is that it stays open."

Ignoring Boone's confused look, Locke removed his hand and continued walking down the path, back to camp.

_The phone rang as soon as Boone stepped foot inside his new apartment. Recently purchase, the place cost four hundred a month, plus the rest of the bills, meaning that Boone had to keep himself busy and working, which was hard while trying to go to school at the same time. At twenty, Boone was the youngest in his psychology class: the only subject he was the slightest bit talented in. Along with the course, he also had to take a pre-calculus class he had skipped taking in high school, an English lit class, and a two hour biology course that was held at a 'convenient' eight in the morning. Who could focus on anything- let alone science- at that time of day?_

_"Hello?" Boone sighed into the phone, dropping a bag of frozen pizzas and canned soda onto the bare counter. _

_"Finally moved out, huh?" A voice on the other line said._

_Boone recognized it, but he couldn't place a name, which made him slightly nervous. He glanced around, and even lifted up a blind from the window over the kitchen sink._

_"Who is this?" Boone said into the phone. _

_"It's David man!" Said the suddenly turned enthusiastic voice on the other line. "You know, your best friend that took you out one night, got you drunk, and then you stole his car and killed a mother and her daughter?_

_Boone winced at David's angered voice, but of course, the guy had every right to it._

_"Look," Boone said, forcing himself to talk, "I'm sorry about that, I-"_

_"Sorry?" David repeated, outraged. "Sorry? I've got cops all over my place every other month questioning me, reporters tying up my phone line, and some crazy-ass guy who lives across the street that keeps looking at me like he just caught me sleeping with his wife!"_

_"I'm sorry," Boone said again, "I didn't know this was that bad. Nothing's even been mentioned about the wreck here since it happened."_

_Suddenly Boone was grateful that he could assume that David didn't know where 'here' was, nor did Boone know where he was receiving the call from._

_"Well I wonder why," David said sarcastically, and it became clear with his slurs that he was drunk, and Boone could almost smell the achohol through the phone, "maybe it's because it's taken the damn police two years to find out who's car it was that murdered the poor girl and her mother, and now here I am, a suspect for homicide. Little do they know, they have the wrong guy."_

_Boone froze. Why hadn't he seen this coming? It was only too obvious what David was planning on doing-_

_"You better get down here to New Mexico(what was he doing in New Mexico- Boone shook himself from the question) and straighten this out," David said into the phone, "or I'm coming after you, and let me tell you, this is one story that won't have a happy ending."_

_David hung up as soon as he called, and the conversation already seemed years away to Boone, who sank down against the cabinets. On the floor he sat, rubbing his hands over his face and through his hair, trying to come up with some kind of plan. Coming up with the only idea he could, Boone reached out his pocket, and took the first step in the same plan he had been carrying out for two years._

_The small bite-sized pills stacked together in the capsule like jellybeans in a jar at the county fair, waiting for some soul to randomly guess its quantity. But it never really was the quantity that mattered, was it? Boone decided that for the first time, he agreed with this as he popped three or four of the small drugs into his mouth, enough to make him drift off into a deep sleep for hours, able to forget the days events._

Author's Note: Surprise! Boone-centric! I know how I want this story to end, and a middle, and some bits and pieces, but it might take me a while to outline it all. Thanks for all the reviews from last story- you guys rock!

Okay, here's what I have planned for some future fics, but I'm not sure what 'centric' they'll be, and I'm still working out the order of events.

Influenza- While Kate secretly takes care of Jack, who's fallen victim to a mysterious island flu, a crazed Locke surprises the beach camp with a spilt secret about one of its castaways.

The One Who Always Ran- Kate tries to stop Sawyer from getting the revenge he's always wanted(can't give too much away about that). (not sure of a 'b' plot yet)

Wash Away(or Madman Across the Water or something else, who knows)- The castaways prepare a third raft for launching, along with a new member to its crew.

Dead Men Tell Tales(working title)- Alex learns more about her family history, including the story of Danielle and her father, and Danielle and Robert, who may not be so dead after all.

In the future of "Forget Me Not":

More castaways discover the hatch, and even take a trip down in it, which will end up being the ride of some of their lives.

Thanks again for the reviews!

October Sky


	2. Chapter Two

Forget Me Not

Chapter Two

Out of habit, Jack glanced at his left wrist where his watch usually was, forgetting that he hadn't worn one since the day of the crash, finding time didn't matter on an island. By the position of the moon, and his own body's restlessness, Jack estimated it to be around eleven-thirty. He himself was getting tired, but he wasn't going to say anything as long as Alex kept moving in her steady pace in front of him, walking effortlessly through the jungle as if it were broad daylight. He could only wish that he had her skill.

"So tell me again why you didn't let anyone know about this before," Jack said, unable to stand the silence.

Like many, Jack hated to have to surrender to silence, afraid of the thoughts and realizations that it would bring.

"I just couldn't find the time," Alex lied, shrugging.

Time was all she had.

"Didn't want to cause an uproar."

"There are people here who lost loved ones in the crash that were in that section of the plane," Jack said, remembering Rose, "didn't you think that they deserved to know?"

"I guess," Alex said, "I dunno. Look, I'm sorry, all right?"

"Yeah, I know," Jack sighed.

Alex hiked a few more paces to the left and then stopped.

"Why'd you stop?" Jack asked, looking around for a reason.

"Because we're here."

She stepped aside to give Jack a good look at what she was looking at. In front of them in a heap of wreckage sat the remainder of the tail section, a long piece of aircraft surrounded by dozens of bags of luggage.

"Just as I found it three days ago," Alex added, "no one's been back since. I don't think there were any survivors."

"There wouldn't be here," Jack said, looking around, "this is the rest of the cargo. Mostly luggage. Any bodies would be nearby."

At the mention of 'bodies', Alex let out a shiver that even Jack four feet away from her noticed.

"You okay?" He asked, concerned.

"Yeah," Alex said, wrapping her arms around her chest, "I'm fine."

As if the cool night air wasn't enough, Alex was smart enough to go into the jungle at night wearing a tank top. Sure she had felt fine when she was beside a fire, but out here there was nothing but the swaying trees and wind. She took a step towards Jack, curious as to what piece of luggage had him intrigued, but faltered as she did, tripping. Grabbing onto a suitcase, Alex caught herself just before she fell, and Jack reached out to help her up.

"Are you sure that you're okay?" Jack said, helping her up.

Jack couldn't help but to notice that Alex's arms were a good deal skinnier than they had been a week ago, and now that he thought about it, she looked lighter than she had before. The jeans that had been the 'perfect fit' just a few weeks ago were now sliding off her small waist every few steps, and the straps of her shirt fell to her shoulders whenever she moved her arms. Letting go, Jack looked up at her, more worried about her more now than ever.

"Have you been eating?" He inquired seriously.

"What's it to you?" Alex snapped, stepping away from him. "Come on, we found the place. Maybe it wasn't such a good plan to come looking for it tonight. Let's go back to camp. You and Sayid or somebody can come looking for it tomorrow."

"No," Jack said, right away making up his mind, "you're in no condition to hike through the jungle at night, and really, neither of us should."

"Then what do you suggest that we do?" Alex asked, suddenly wanting nothing more than to be back in the caves, surrounded by other people, where she would be safe.

Not that she didn't trust Jack, there was just something about being out in the jungle stashed away in the back of the set of the "Twilight Zone" with dead bodies everywhere that creeped her out. Not to mention that Jack wasn't exactly the most 'in-place' guy around, not that was his fault though, and it wasn't that much of a big deal anymore. It was as big as Jack made it seem.

"Make camp," Jack answered, "we should be fine for the night, if you don't mind. I mean, if this makes you uncomfortable-"

"No," Alex said quickly, flattered that Jack actually cared about how she felt about the situation, "I'll be fine, and your right, with that thing out there-"

"It's not real," Jack said sternly.

"Right," Alex rolled her eyes, "and with the thing out there that eats people but isn't real out there, we can't be too safe."

"Good," Jack nodded, and looked behind him to a spot that wasn't covered luggage "I'll sleep over here and you-"

"I'll be over here," Alex said, sitting down against a tree across from Jack.

She watched as he rearranged some luggage to make sure that they didn't fall on him in the middle of the night.

"Kate won't get jealous, will she?" Alex asked, her eyes twinkling in the night.

Jack gave her a sly smile.

"Don't worry, she's had her share."

Alex chuckled at Jack's humor and searched behind her for some wood for fire. She soon had a fire going(practice really make perfect), and Alex sighed as she laid her head back against the tree she was leaning against, and glanced over to Jack, who was by now fast asleep. She could only wish that she had the same skill.

(Space)

"They're probably wondering where we are," Sayid said to Shannon, who lay beside him on the beach.

"No one will miss me," Shannon said, with a hint of sadness in her voice that only Sayid could detect.

The night was perfect. The two had walked until the beach dissolved into jungle, and Shannon had picked a place to rest, but the rest drew out longer than expected, and Shannon and Sayid now lay in the sand, with their elbows propping them just up above the sand. Shannon gazed into his eyes, praying that he wouldn't say anything that would make her feel worse.

"What about Boone?"

Like that.

"He's probably still out with Locke," Shannon said, rolling her eyes, "I swear, someone should tell those two to get a room or something. Or at least they should try and find out what they're up too."

"You know how that one went," Sayid said, recalling their many attempts to rat out Locke and Boone.

"Yeah," Shannon sighed, "I know."

_The streets of LA were jam packed as Shannon walked downtown in a quick pace. Though she was only sixteen, a leather name-brand purse dangled from her fingertips, which probably cost more than the outfits of the last two pedestrians she past, and small diamonds flickered in the sunlight that rayed on her tiny earlobes. Above the traffic and daily conversation on the streets, Shannon's ring tone- a two dollar movie theme from some classic she had never even watched- rang. She groaned as she checked the caller id, wishing that she hadn't already pressed the 'talk' button._

_"What?" She said bitterly into the phone._

_"Shannon, I need your help," a desperate voice on the other line said._

_"What the hell could you possibly want from me?"_

_On the other line Boone, her ever-so-loved stepbrother, sighed._

_"I need a place to stay."_

_"Didn't you just by that fancy apartment of yours?" Shannon said with jealousy._

_Still only in her teens, Shannon was stuck living with her depressed mother while Boone had moved hours away a week after her father had left. No one had even bothered to ask Shannon how she felt about the situation._

_"Someone's after me," Boone said, breathing heavily._

_From the background sound, Shannon assumed that Boone was already packing._

_"I still live with mom, you know," the sixteen year old reminded him._

_"I know!" Boone exclaimed. "I just need to get out of here! I need your help!"_

_"Fine," Shannon said, crossing her arms, "but for a price."_

_Miles and hours away, Boone stopped._

_"What?"_

_"Five thousand dollars," Shannon said with no regrets, "and as soon as you get here you have to talk mom into getting me a car."_

_"Three thousand," was Boone's answer._

_"Four thousand," offered Shannon._

_"One thousand and I'll buy you the car."_

_Shannon thought about it, and then.._

_"Deal."_

Author's Note: Well look at that, Shannon/Boone centric flashbacks. This should get interesting. Oh, and I've decided to make the next fic Sawyer-centric and then the one after that Jack. I thought about making the Sawyer one post-island, but then that would've ruined another plot I have with the island series. Anyway, sorry for the shortness of this chapter, and thanks for the reviews..um..review. Where'd you guys go? Oh well.

P.S: Please don't look at the Jack/Alex as a romance. That's just..disturbing. They just care about each other..like a friendship. This series is totally Jate.

Next fic, "The Wall"(working title):

A new island patient of Jack has a past connection to Sawyer.

Coming up next on "Forget Me Not":

Unable to sleep, Alex and Jack have a little late night chat about the previous life, and in the morning, Shannon discovers a secret about Sayid.

Until next time..

October Sky


	3. Chapter Three

Forget Me Not

Chapter Three

Spoiler alert: Oh yeah, spoilers may pop up in this, and if you're reading Stephen King's _The Dead Zone_, Alex spoils the ending in here for ya, so be prepared.

Jack stirred awake only an hour or two after he had slept. He had had the weirdest dream ever, and the craziest part was, it had all seemed so real. It was four months earlier, and Jack had actually gone through with getting his flying licensee. He was flying over the south pacific, when he spotted an odd shaped island that stood out in the middle of the ocean. Somehow, he was able to see right through it, and there, in the middle of the island's jungle stood Locke, staring straight up at Jack. In one of the creepiest voices Jack had ever heard, Locke said to him "Turn around Jack- go back" and then..that was it. What the hell was that dream supposed to mean? Dancing flames replied as the fire crackled in front of him, and just as Jack wondered if Alex had fallen asleep without putting it out, he noticed that she was still awake, leaning back against a tree and reading the Stephen King book that Sayid had found in her bag.

"I thought we stopped so that you could rest," Jack said, his voice dry and raspy.

"Yeah," Alex said, "and I agreed so that _you_ could rest."

She turned a page with a loud flip that echoed through the night, leaving Jack to wonder how he was set up by a teenager.

"Here," Alex said, taking something out of her bag, "I found this out in the jungle."

Alex threw the item to Jack, and he saw that it was some kind of green fruit that he had never noticed was out there before.

"I'm not sure what it is," Alex admitted, "but I tried one. It seemed fine."

"What were you doing out in the jungle in the middle of the night?

Over the rim of her novel, Alex raised an eyebrow.

"Right," Jack sighed, reddening in embarrassment, "here, you take it.

He threw the fruit back to her, remembering his earlier concerns about her health and also Jack wasn't too hyped about eating some unknown fruit in the middle of the night.

"So what woke you up?" Alex wondered out loud, not looking up from her book. "Am I reading too loud?"

"Just a dream," Jack said, offering nothing more, "what about you? Why aren't you asleep?"

Setting the fruit on her flattened out bag beside her, Alex side, running a hand threw her hair.

"I'm afraid to," she said quietly.

"Afraid to sleep?" Jack said as if that was the most ridiculous things he ever heard.

"Afraid to dreams," Alex said, her voice no louder than before.

She concentrated on her book as if it were a needle she was trying to thread.

"I'm sick of it," she continued, her voice becoming a little shaking, "the dreams. The deaths. The visions. I hate what I am and yet I don't even know what I am."

"You can't keep doing this to yourself," was all that Jack could think of to say, "your body needs rest."

"Thank you, Bill Nye," Alex said grumpily.

"Oh man," Jack said, smiling as he looked down, "I had forgotten all about that show. I used to hate that guy."

"_You _hated a science show?" Alex said, looking up for the first time.

"I wasn't that much of a geek," Jack said, shaking his head.

"How many times did you see _Star Wars_ when it first came out?" Alex tested.

"Only six," Jack said, and sighed, "okay fine, I'm a geek, but at least I'm not obsessed with Stephen King."

"What's wrong with King?" Alex said angrily, putting the book down.

"He never finishes his stories," Jack explained, "for example, how does that one end?"

"The guy dies," Alex said, frowning at the man on the cover of the novel.

"See?"

"After he saves the world," Alex added, "well..sort of. Anyway, fine then. So we're both geeks. What's your favorite tv show?"

"My favorite show was _Part of Five_," Jack said, "until it went off the air."

"You know," Alex said, studying Jack closely through the fire, "has anyone ever told you that you look like that one guy, Charlie?"

"Actually," Jack said, thinking, "that's a first. What about you, what's your favorite show?"

"When I get the chance to watch tv?" Alex said. "_Cheers_. Seriously, I'm in love with that show. I don't know why, I guess I'm just stuck in the past. "While I was working in this studio in New York, one of the producer's names was Norman, and every time he'd come in the room we all would shout-"

"Norm!" Alex and Jack said together, and laughed at their own joke quietly in the night.

"So what about music?" Alex said after the laughter drew out. "Tell me you're not a classical guy."

"Not really," Jack said, thinking back.

Talking about the previous life felt odd to Jack, especially when it didn't concern his emotions or well-being.

"The golden oldies I guess," Jack said, shrugging, "and a little reggae. Tell me you're not into that pop or rap that they pass off as 'music'."

"I write songs on acoustic guitar," Alex informed him, "pop's not really my thing. Me? The sixties and seventies. My dad was absolutely obsessed with The Who. I never knew why. But anyway, I mostly listen to solo artist: Van Morisson, Billy Joel, that sort."

"Sounds good," Jack said, and asked the next question without thinking, "what about Adam? What did he listen to?"

Alex looked down, smiling sadly.

"Led Zeplin," she replied, "he had this place in this apartment building in Manhattan. It was a two bedroom apartment, and you should've seen what he did with the second room. It was amazing. The walls were covered with posters of Jimmy Page and Robert plant and he had painted the words "and she's buying a stairway to heaven" on the walls with this creepy paint stuff that looked like water colors. He filled the place with electric and double string guitars, and had a few different kinds of electric keyboards, and he even had a baby grand in the main living room."

"He sounds rich," Jack said, thankful that Alex had actually responded when he had asked, and he also noted that this was really the happiest she had sounded in a while. Like she was at peace with herself, and Jack couldn't help but to feel a sense of pride when it struck him that he had done that.

"Nah," Alex shook her head, "he inherited it all. He was just as poor as I was."

"He seems like he was a great guy," Jack said, knowing that he was repeating himself, but he just couldn't stop trying to get her to remember that.

"He was," Alex said, smiling to herself, looking down.

A few minutes past and the only noise was the fire crackling between them and crickets chirping in a bush somewhere in the distance.

"So when we get back to camp," Jack said finally, "I guess I'll ask Sayid to come out with me later on and search for bodies. You want to help? You know, maybe as sort of a- guidance."

Jack was about to apologize for the added comment when he noticed Alex's sudden distant look.

Alex was looking beyond Jack into a moonlit clearing full of people. A couple walked happily along a row of wildflowers, while an old man sang to himself as he shuffled a deck of cards and dealt them our for a game of solitaire. His voice was low, but smooth, and Alex's background in music recognized the song as the Eagle's "Desperado".

As the old man reached the ending verse, his "why don't you let somebody love you"s were in perfect tune, and a little blonde headed girl laughed as a black man who looked like the exact cross between Bill Cosby and B.B. King(a weird combination, she noted) picked her up when she jumped into his arms, and swung her around. It was clear that the two weren't related, or even hardly knew each other, but that didn't seem to matter to either. The little girl smiled widely at Alex, as the man gave her a kiss on the cheek, and Alex smiled back.

"Actually," Alex said thoughtfully, "I think they're right where they want to be."

Author's Note: Once again, sorry for the short chapter, but I'm not exactly sure what I want to do with the hatch yet, so I decided to post what I have. In this chapter, it was not my direct intent to recruit people to my taste in music, though Alex and I do share similar liking. And just in case, I don't own "Desperado" and I just heard that song for the first time in forever on an _Seinfeld_ episode. Thanks for the reviews!

**Crazyhorsegirl88:** I hope I didn't dissapoint you. You're getting a little ahead of yourself there! And yes, the bunny should make a reaperance in Jack's fic, but I'm not sure what I want to do with that yet. Any suggestions?

**Orlando-Crazy:** Thanks for coming back!

Coming up next, in "Forget Me Not":

When it appears that Locke is stuck in the hatch, Boone, Sayid and Shannon must go to drastic measures to save them. Too bad they didn't take a look around before they acted.

Thanks again for the reviews!

October Sky


	4. Chapter Four

Forget Me Not

Chapter Four

"So when are we going to tell them?" Boone asked Locke as he carefully skipped over the stair on the ladder he broke the first day inside the hatch.

"Tell them what?" Locke asked some three or four feet below them.

Mornings had become a little bit more exciting for Boone once they finally began learning what all the computer system did, and how to control it. Surprisingly, it was Boone himself that became a master at the system's keys: figuring out codes, directions. The thing was amazing, and Boone had taken an errie pride into his new skills, and the fact that Locke couldn't do so much as to turn it on seemed to please him. He felt like he was trying to outdo his older brother.

"About this place," Boone said, looking down again, making sure that Locke skipped the splintered step that Boone had cut his hand on at least a dozen times.

"Why would you want to do that?" Locke said, as if secret underground hideaways on deserted islands were no big deal.

"You know what it does," Boone said, "what if we- find out something?"

"Then we'll deal with it then," Locke said, brushing off the conversation, "but until then-"

"I know, I know," Boone muttered, "don't tell anyone."

Often he wondered what the others would think if they knew that was keeping secrets for Locke. Then it occurred to him that he would probably appear as some corrupted, brainwashed kid, and suddenly, keeping the entire situation wasn't so frustrating anymore. Actually, the only frustrating part was dealing with the others once he got back to camp, in particular Sayid and then later on Shannon, who both sensed that Boone was up to something.

"So what have you been telling them?" Locke asked, and the thought of Locke possibly being able to read his mind made Boone shivered. "What we've been doing, I mean?"

"I told them that we've been exploring," Boone said, making sure than he himself skipped the blistered step, "I think I even told Sayid once that we looked around the _Black Rock_."

"Do any of them suspect anything?"

Boone began to wonder why it seemed that no one hounded Locke like they did him.

"Only Shannon and Sayid," Boone said regretfully.

He could only pray that he wouldn't wake up the next morning to find Shannon and Sayid's heads on sticks somewhere deep in the jungle.

"That may be a problem," Locke said, jumping to the surface of the hatch when he finally reached it, and helped Boone down as he did the same.

Boone couldn't help but to noticed that every since that first day when he hurt his knee, Locke had been extra careful around Boone, and he knew it was because if either one of them got into any serious danger, it would mean bringing Jack out here. Once down on the ground, Boone strolled right over to the screen, and turned it on with the six digit code. Then, like they were security guards of the island, the two stood back and monitored the screen for a while. After a few minutes of looking at jungle scenery, Boone minimized the screen and switched the location to the beach, where two solemn figures rested by the sea. Boone's eyes narrowed. It didn't take a rocket science to know that that was Sayid and Shannon. A rasp of coughs suddenly escaped Boone's throat and he groaned as he checked his empty pockets.

"What?" Locke asked, eyeing him.

"Nothing, I've just had this cold all night," Boone said truthfully, "I mean to bring some Tylenol Jack had out with me today, but I forgot."

"It's still early," Locke said, tilting his head back towards the tiny blue speck of sky, "why don't you head back and get those? Actually, I'll be fine out here if you just want to take it easy for a day."

"Nah, I'm cool," Boone said, staring intensely at the screen, trying to get his mind off the cold.

It worked for a few minutes as Boone tried and then failed at holding back another round of coughs.

"I'll-uh- get back as soon as I can."

Locke chuckled and nodded as Boone was back up the ladder in a record amount of time. He then sighed, and Locke realized for the first time that he was thankful that he hadn't discovered the hatch alone. Sure he was used to living life as an outcast, and had it not been for Claire's abduction, he'd probably remain one, but discovering something like this- it just wasn't something that one could handle on his own. Even someone like himself. However, one thing that Locke just could not understand was why Boone could work the- whatever you wanted to call it- and he couldn't. He had simply given up after two dozens tries, afraid that he might set off some kind of alarm, but now as he stood alone in front of the massive screen, curiosity got the better of Locke, and despite the infamous famous last words, he just couldn't help but to wonder 'what does this button do' as he keyed in the numbers '156' and pressed a random button to his left, and waited to see what happened.

The very first reaction was the system shutting down, which Locke knew from watching a million classic movies and television wasn't good. First went the tiny dots as Shannon and Sayid's date faded into darkness along with the green tree graphics around it, ending with the ocean and the sky. Locke frantically keyed in every number code he could think of from '815' to '007'. He didn't know which had done it, but a small beep rang through the hatch, followed by the screeched of silent meddle and a thud. And then, darkness.

(Space)

"Hey John," Boone said, nearing the hatch's entrance, assuming that Locke could hear him below, "any idea where everyone went today? I just got back from the caves and man, the place was like a ghost town. For a second I thought that they had all gotten rescued and had forgotten us. You don't think that would happen, do you John? John?"

No noise came from the hatch at all. Setting his bag down, Boone walked up to the entrance to the hatch, and bent down before realizing what was wrong: the door was sealed tight.

"Dammit," Boone said, slapping the glass, "John! Locke, can you hear me!"

A muffled shout came from somewhere distant that seemed much further away than twenty feet. A better idea came to Boone. After escevating the top part of the hatch, Locke suggested that they'd begin to dig around the hatch. Now an empty moat surrounded the surface of the hatch, standing a good fifteen feet from the ground. Carefully, Boone lowered himself down into the ground, letting his hand scrape against the mud as he did. Once on the ground, Boone felt his way around the outside of the hatch. He banged against the side wall.

"Locke!" He called again. "Can you hear me?"

The same muffled cry replied, only this time, a little closer.

"What happened?" Boone shouted next.

No audible reply.

"Are you okay?" He said, praying for an answer.

None came.

"That's it," Boone said, making up his mind, "I'm going to get Jack."

A round of muffled replies came from deep inside the hatch that almost amused Boone as he imagined Locke beating himself up over trying to find a way out of the hatch. He knew he had been gone for nearly an hour- the emptiness of the camp had distracted him- but Boone guessed that if Locke had been down there that long, he would've already tried to find a way out.

"I'll get you out of there," was his final promise to Locke before Boone raced off towards the caves.

(Space)

"Sayid!" Boone shouted, running as fast as he could towards the spot where he had see Shannon and Sayid on the beach before.

For once, his curiosity and jealousy had helped him.

"Sayid!" He called again, a huge wave of relief rushing through him as he felt the soft sand fly as his feet pounded against the forest floor.

Sayid and Shannon sat in the sand just to where the waves would brush up against their ankles. They said facing each other with a love-sick look in their eyes that made Boone sick.

"Sayid!" Boone said a final time before catching himself as he almost collapsed to the ground, out of breath.

For a moment Sayid looked like he wanted to kill Boone, but then he realized that his reasons must be more serious than just jealousy if Boone was interrupting them for a second time.

"What is it?" Sayid said immediately, jumping up.

"Locke," Boone finally managed to get out, "in the jungle- I need your help."

"With what?" Sayid asked curiously, but his only answer was Boone turning, leading Sayid into the jungle.

(Space)

"We've been out here for twenty minutes," Sayid complained once things had calmed down, "where's Locke? And how did you know where we are?"

"Wild guess," Boone replied dryly.

"This wouldn't have anything to do with what you two have been doing out here everyday, does it?" Sayid said, making his own wild guesses.

"You'll see," Boone said, growing impatient with himself as he realized that he had taken the long way around.

The second reason he was in such a bad mood was because of what he was having to do. How were you supposed to explain a hidden hatch buried on an uncharted island? Better yet, how were you supposed to explain why you kept it secret?

"Why did you stop?" Sayid asked, glancing at Boone when he stopped ten minutes later.

Boone took a deep breath.

"Because this," Boone said, exhaling drastically, "is what we've been doing for the past eight weeks.

Stepping aside, Boone gave Sayid a full view of the hatch, and the Iraqi's awed face was pricelessly. Shannon, however, was anything but awed.

"What the hell is that thing?" She said, shaking, looking at the hatch in pure horror.

Sayid jumped a little and even Boone was a bit surprised that Shannon had actually kept up with them. Neither had noticed that she had followed.

"When did you find it?" Sayid said, taking a step towards the hatch as he got over the shock of it.

"That night when we all went out looking for Claire," Boone said, remembering, "I was going to go back to camp, and Locke tossed me his flashlight, but it slipped, and landed on something hard instead. So we started uncovering, and found this patch of metal."

"And the lies began," Sayid said coldly.

"Yeah," Boone said quietly.

"So what, is Locke in there?" Shannon said, trying to hide her fear of the unliving object. "Better yet, what's under there."

"That I don't think I can explain," Boone said truthfully.

"How about we go get one of Jack's guns and make you," Shannon said sharply.

"Shannon," Sayid scolded, skeptical about going that route.

"Look," Boone said, trying to avoid any explanation, "the important thing right now is getting Locke out of there."

"He's right," Sayid agreed, "we'll blow it up."

"What?" Shannon and Boone exclaimed at the same time.

"Anything can break with the right amount of force," Sayid said, bending down beside the hatch, thinking, "dynamite if we can get it. Grenades if we can't."

"Alex used up all the grenades."

The three spun around to find Kate approaching them, Danielle right behind her. Suddenly, Kate stopped.

"What the hell is that?" She said with forced calmness- a skill that she had learned from Jack- staring at the hatch.

"We're trying to find out," Sayid informed her, "what are you two doing here?"

"We were looking for-" Kate stopped, looking to the side, "Jack and Alex."

Just as she was saying their names, the two walked into the scene, totally unaware of any of the unusual events going on. Jack was reaching behind him, adjusting the pack on his back, and Alex was taking a sip of water when they both noticed the group of people watching them.

"Kate," Jack greeted, "what are you doing out here?"

"I was just about to ask you the same," Kate said, eyeing him.

"Alex um-" Jack glanced at Alex for an answer.

"I found something in the jungle," Alex said, covering for him, the tail section of your flight."

Sayid's eyebrows narrowed.

"And you didn't think that anyone else should know about this?" He said, a bit angry with the assumption.

"Looks like we're not the only ones keeping secrets," Jack said, waving towards the hatch, "what the hell is going on?"

"Locke's trapped down inside that thing," Boone said, trying to explain it to make it sound like this was all Locke's doing.

"You knew about this?" Kate said, turning towards him.

Boone looked down towards the hatch, trying to think of some kind of lie.

"So how are you going to dig your way out of this one?" Shannon suddenly spoke up. "Going to think up another eight year lie? Leave us all in the dark."

"Shannon," Sayid said, catching her arm before she attempted to pummel Boone.

"What about you?" Shannon said, turning to Danielle in fury. "Did you know about this too?"

Danielle seemed surprised to be addressed by Shannon, whom she had hardly spoken a word to.

"I've never seen it," Danielle said sincerely, "or anything like it."

"She's lying!" Shannon shouted suddenly, and turned to Sayid, desperate to find someone who would hear her out. "Come on Sayid, sixteen years out here- not one boat, ship, plane- and now this? She's been lying to us from the beginning."

The line brought a sense of dejavu to Sayid, making him shiver.

"Why don't you and Alex go back to camp," Sayid said, ignoring her.

"Yes," Danielle said, glaring at Shannon, "I think that that's a good idea."

"What?" Alex cried. "No, no way. I'm in this as much as you guys-"

The others just stared back at her.

"Jack-" she said, turning to him hopefully.

Jack looked at Danielle, and shrugged.

"If your mother says so, "Jack said, and though it was obvious to some that Jack regretted saying it, Alex never saw it.

"What? It wasn't 'if your mother says so' last night when we went out for the tail section!" Alex cried in protest.

"That could've been a life and death situation," Jack said, turning away from her.

Jack had never once given thought to how difficult it was to raise a child, or at least not a teenager, and he now had a great feeling of sympathy to every parent out there. He didn't want to put Alex in any kind of danger, but it didn't really matter to Jack one way or another if she stayed or went. Though Jack didn't know the Rousseau family very well, he had a feeling that the two could carry out an argument or debate for days, and he wasn't all that hyped about being caught in the middle. At this point, he wasn't sure who would be harder to deal with in this situation: Alex or Danielle.

"Hey guys," Boone spoke up over them, "Locke's still down there."

"All right," Jack said, "here's what we'll do. Danielle, you mentioned some kind of explosives at the _Black Rock_, right?"

Danielle nodded.

"Good," he said, "Sayid, Boone, and I will go out for those. Kate, I need you to-"

"I'm coming with you," Kate said, interrupting him.

"What?" Jack said, and then shook his head. "No, Kate, it's too dangerous."

"I've been through just as much as you have out there!" Kate argued, and immediately regretted it at the hurt look on Jack's face.

Everyone- well, almost everyone, there knew that that statement lacked truth.

"I'm sorry," Kate said, hoping that Jack would believe her, "what I meant to say was, if there's anyone here who knows what their up against it's me, you, Sayid, and Danielle."

"I'm not going," Danielle said, making everyone turn towards her.

"Why?" Jack was the first to say it.

"You'll have too many with your group," Danielle said, obviously lying.

"Then who will lead us?" Jack said, growing slightly worried.

He and Kate had both been to the underground areas around _Black Rock_, but never actually to the thing.

"How about Boone?" Sayid suggested, causing Boone to look up. "Since he seems to be the _Black Rock _expert."

"You've been there too," Boone pointed out.

"That was over a month ago," Sayid said, "and I ended up being unconscious that night."

"What about you two?" Boone said, looking at Jack and Kate.

They both shook their heads.

"Fine," Boone agreed finally, sighing.

"New plan," Jack said, "Kate, me, you, Sayid, and Boone will go to Black Rock and get the explosives. Alex, you and Shannon need to distract everyone at camp."

"How do we do that?" Alex said, accepting the mission.

"Tell them that Locke's missing," Jack said, "and if we're not back at camp in five hours, take a group- a small group- out and pretend like you're searching for him. Shannon, you'll need to do that."

"What makes you think that I want to do that?" Shannon said, disgusted and clearly not having a good time.

"Fine," Jack said, "Alex, you do that."

"All right," Alex nodded, "but how do I convenience them that Locke got himself lost?"

Jack thought about it. Good point.

"Tell them that he got hurt then," Jack said, "and Boone's missing-" he turned to Boone- "if you don't-"

"No," Boone said, shaking his head, "sounds realistic to me."

He sighed drastically and Shannon rolled her eyes.

"And Danielle," Jack said, turning to her, "I need you to help to help Sun with anyone who gets hurt but please, try and get everyone to stay out of trouble while we're gone."

Danielle nodded, and filed out, with Alex storming off behind her.

"Have fun," Shannon muttered to Boone as she made to leave as well.

"Like you care," Boone said, annoyed with her behavior, "you just can't help yourself, can you?"

"Come on guys," Kate said, "we don't need this right now."

"How about you just-"

"Shannon," Jack said before Sayid could get to it.

"You know what," Shannon said, "I changed my mind. I want to come."

"What?" Boone said, and snickered. "You won't make it five miles."

"You want to bet?" Shannon challenged.

"Yeah," Boone said, "I do. I bet my dinner that you can't make it this trip without you getting into some kind of trouble."

"Your on," Shannon said, only inches from Boone's face.

Sayid pulled her away.

"We should get going," he said, and looked up at Jack who nodded and led the group into the jungle.

Jack could only hope that his plan went as smoothly in reality as it did in his head.

Author's Note: Okay, the wait was soo not my fault! The site was down for two days, and I couldn't get on. That with a touch of writer's block. hm..only two returning reviewers? I'll still keep writing this though! Thanks for sticking around and reviewing guys!

Coming up next on "Forget Me Not":

Who will win the bet? Will Jack's plan work? Who will get hurt? Will Locke be saved? What will the results of blowing up the hatch and going to Black Rock be? I can tell you that for our two leaders and a third party: not good.

Thanks again for reviewing! It means a lot to me that you guys are still reading!

October Sky


	5. Chapter Five

Forget Me Not

Chapter Five

Author's Note: Jack references back to a time being at the Black Rock. Not many of you(the few left..sniffle..just kidding, thanks for sticking around guys!) read my version of "Whatever the Case May Be", but in it, Jack and Kate were kidnapped, and found at what would become the _Black Rock_. It's an underground setting that I've used numerous times that has no connection to the hatch..I think.

_The early morning's sun shone in Shannon's eyes as she opened the door to the mansion she lived in with her mother. On the porch stood Boone, along with a duffel bag that sat on the ground beside him._

_"Took you long enough," Boone complained._

_"Sorry," Shannon said, rolling her eyes, "I was in the shower. You weren't supposed to be here until ten."_

_"I got out of the airport earlier than I expected," Boone explained._

_Shannon stared at him, as if trying to figure out the truth._

_"Will you just let me in?" Boone said, impatient._

_"Sure," Shannon said, opening the door to let him through, "you're lucky mom's out. She'd probably ask a million questions."_

_"And how do I know you don't?" Boone said, taking off a pair of expensive sunglasses and setting them on a glass table piece, revealing his wild eyes that had a tendency to change color with the light._

_"See the thing is," Shannon said, flopping down and making herself comfortable on the main room's leather couch, "when I ask, I get rewarded."_

_"Rewarded?"_

_"I'm getting that car," Shannon said, eyes narrowed, "that's the deal, got it? And if you break it-"_

_Shannon stood up to face her step brother, who stood only centimeters taller than her, and finished._

_"Then I'll tell mom why you're really here."_

_Boone stared at her long and hard, and forced himself to not be intimidated by a girl four years young than him._

_"How do you know about that?" He forced himself to say a few moments later._

_All Boone remembered telling Shannon was a lie saying that there was a leak in his apartment. A number of things could make this an obvious lie, one being that his apartment was across state, and if he had money to ride on a plane for not even two hours, then he had money to rent a hotel for a few days._

_"You're a horrible liar," Shannon said to his face, "someone's after you."_

_Boone stared at her, his eyes boring into Shannon's in a death stare, fire burning in his pupils as he searched for a flaw in his secret. He had been careful. He had only come home on certain holidays and spoke of only school, lying about how well he was doing whenever his mom called. So how had Shannon found out? If Boone was lucky, it was just a wild guess. Seeing that Boone wasn't going to neither confirm nor deny this, Shannon smiled sweetly, and said with added charm:_

_"Want some coffee?"_

_Later that evening, Boone was walking the second floor hall to his old bedroom when he noticed that the door to Shannon's room, twice the size as his on a mutual choice, was open. Pink blossomed into the hallway with the light, as well as the sound of Shannon's excited boyfriend. Boone crept closer to peek into the room, and saw that his sisters was laying down her queen sized bed, not a care in the world, twirling the cord of a phone that connected to her own private line with one leg rested in the air over the other._

_"Yeah Brad," Shannon was saying cheerfully into the phone, "it's going to be awesome. It's this tiny red convertible. Yeah, I'm getting my brother to make a deal with my mom. Yeah, I know he's an idiot but who cares, what else as he good for?"_

_Any other sibling out there might've been insulted and even hurt by the line, but Boone knew it could be worse. Shaking his head, he smiled at his sister's overexcitement as he continued the path down the hall._

Six years later, Boone was only four feet in front of that little girl, who was now twenty-two, which allowed him plenty of opportunities to listen into her conversations, which were full of distrust for her brother.

"I don't see how you can trust him," Shannon said to Sayid in her definition of a whisper, "why can't you lead us?"

"Because I didn't come from this direction," Sayid replied in a hushed voice, "you can always turn back."

"No," Shannon said, more quickly than she intended.

Sayid side glanced her.

"Hold on," he whispered.

And Shannon nodded, walking on as Sayid held back, waiting for Jack and Kate to catch up.

"What's up?" Jack said when they finally reached him.

Kate shifted her weight to one leg, taking the opportunity to rest on Jack's shoulder.

"Boone doesn't know what he's doing," Sayid said, just loud enough for Jack to here him.

"What?" Kate said, looking at Sayid.

"I don't even think we're anywhere near _Black Rock_," Sayid went on.

"But why would Boone-" Kate began, and then all three of them sighed at the same realization.

"Shannon," they said in unison.

"I don't get it," Sayid said after a short pause, "why go to so much trouble to impress a sibling that he doesn't even appear to care for."

"He cares for her," Jack said, watching Shannon and Boone- who had already managed to engage themselves in another argument- from a distance, "and maybe he's looking for something more."

Kate looked at Jack, studying him, trying to figure out what that statement was supposed to mean, coming from a man who had done nothing but impress, or had fought to impress, his family, in particular, his father.

What the three hadn't noticed was that they were, in fact, at the _Black Rock_, a site that stood just beyond the trees from where the trio stood. There, Shannon and Boone's argument had turned into a brawl, and it was obvious that Boone was fighting everything to not strike his sister. Sayid and Jack ran to break it up, followed by Kate.

"Hey!" Jack called as he ran to them. "Come on guys, we're not here to play pirates. Locke's depending on us."

"Trust me," Boone said, "when he finds out I told you, he's not going to be all that grateful."

"Yeah," Shannon chimed, "I'm surprised that he hasn't murdered you already. Strung up up like Ethan did-"

"Shannon!" Sayid said sharply.

Shannon looked down, and Boone looked away, embarrassed.

"Let's just go," Jack said, already exhausted from the trip.

As they walked closer to the hidden entrance of _Black Rock_, Jack lagged behind with Kate, who had been distancing herself from the group since they had started out.

"Brings back memories," Jack said quietly as he walked with her, "you sure you want to do this?"

Kate looked down at her shoes, counting her footsteps as she walked, trying to ignore Jack. Finally, she could bare his stare no longer.

"I'm fine," she whispered, and Jack sighed.

Half of Jack had really wanted her to say that she wanted to turn back, because in all truth, he wanted to turn back; but he knew that Locke's life depended on him, unless the man found a way out on his own.

"Okay," Jack said when they finally reached the hidden passageway, "this is how we're doing this. I'm going first, then Kate, then Shannon-" he looked at Boone and Sayid, "-and then you two. The last stairs are broken, so you'll have to jump."

None of the pack said anything as Jack nodded to himself and than bent, down, picking the handle of the wooden door up from its home in the sand.

"Wait," Sayid said, making them all turn, "maybe we should search the ship."

"The ship?" Jack repeated. "Why would we want to search the ship? We've never been in the ship, unless-"

He looked up at Boone to finish his statement.

"Sorry," Boone shrugged, "as many times as I've been out here, I've never see any ship, of any kind."

"And who's to say that Danielle has been where we have?" Sayid pointed out. "And most of us have been down there. We've searched the area, and never saw any dynamite."

Kate glanced at Jack.

"He has a point."

Jack looked down, and then nodded.

"All right," he agreed, and stood up.

A hole gave entrance to the ship, and Jack shone a flashlight from his pack inside before even thinking about entering. When he did, Kate held onto his arm until the very last second. Jack stood inside what seemed to be the lower deck of the boat, and waved his flashlight around slowly, examining the place.

Boxes took up most of the area. A shut closet was hidden in the shadows of one corner, and there was a staircase that was lit up by a tiny ray of sunlight. On the walls hung shackles, and dried blood decorated the rotten wood.

"It looks pretty stable," Jack said finally, loudly enough for those outside to hear, "we just need to be-"

Just as Jack was about to say 'careful' the roof beside him gave him, and Jack dove to the ground, dropping his flashlight, and something cracked underneath him once he hit the ground. The roof just barely missed him, but with all the dust that blew up with the fall, those outside couldn't tell.

"Jack!" Kate cried, her voice full of worry.

Jack was only able to cough as he tried to recover from hitting the ground hard, and he reached for his now dimmed flashlight to be able to see what he had fallen on. The site below him almost made Jack sick: a skeleton with a now cracked right arm.

"I'm fine," he called at last, and the remaining castaways outside sighed in relief, "the ceiling it just- gave in. The rest is fine."

"Are you all right?" Sayid called, either having not heard Jack, or not believing him, "we heard something crack."

"Oh," Jack said, realizing they must've meant the skeleton, "that wasn't me."

Jack rolled over, and stared at the wood above him, praying that it wouldn't give in as well as he tried to catch his breath.

"You mean there's someone in there with you?" Shannon's voice exclaimed, horrified.

"There was," Jack said thoughtfully, "maybe a hundred years ago."

Finally calm, Jack got to his feet, and made his way carefully towards the entrance, only to find it blocked by piles of wood and fallen debris. Why did this incident remind him so much of the cave in?

"It's caved in," Jack yelled over the wall, "you guys are going to have to find another way in."

"And how the hell are we going to do that?" Shannon shouted back, silence by what sounded like a nudge to the stomach.

Jack thought about it.

"Walk around," he said finally, "try and find a way to the upper deck. There's a staircase coming down. Be careful, it might be rotted. I'll check out the place. Sayid's right, if there's any explosives, they're in here. Looks like there's some kind of closet down here to, and another passageway. I'm going to look around, see if there's anything useful besides dynamite."

Everyone but Kate seemed fine with the plan.

"Jack, you're not staying in there alone!" She said, sounding like she was still worried for his safety.

"I'm fine," Jack said, looking down, "just go with Sayid."

"I'm going with Sayid!" Shannon said, immediately afterwards.

Jack sighed. The situation was helpless.

"Fine," he said, "then go with Boone."

"But Jack-" Kate tried desperately.

"Locke doesn't have much time, Kate," he reminded her, "just- go- and be careful."

Jack knew that Kate was looking down at the ground, regretting her answer before even saying it.

"All right."

Back outside, Sayid formed a plan, and soon, he and Shannon were taking one pathway around the ship, and Kate followed Boone down the other, trying to swallow the pit in her stomach and block out the voices in her head that told her that nothing good could come from this.

Author's Note: Aren't you guys proud? I have yet to really hurt Jack in this fic. I had it planned. Ideas from this fic ranged everywhere from Jack falling down the hatch to Jack getting kidnapped by pirates, but then I decided that I wanted to actually, you know, accomplish something for once in a fic. Hm..sounds like a good title.."Once In A Fic" Lol. Anyway, sorry for the wait, I'm sorta fighting writers block with this story, but I'm trying. I'll try and finish this story by Friday because I have dance recitals all weekend, so I'll be worn out, and my second favorite tv show, The _Dead Zone_( a truly awesome so- I highly recommend it) starts back next Sunday, so that's where my mind will be. Lately I've had this weird obsession with Anthony Michael Hall movies and such and well..I just have to say that I love him, he's a great actor, and anything he's in is worth watching. And that has nothing to do with my fic. Lol. I'm pleased that I got three(four?) reviewers back- thanks guys, I really appreciate it! And I'd write for just one reviewer- and have actually done that before. So don't worry, this story is getting finished.

Coming up next in "Forget Me Not":

Jack's plan works well as he and Kate get back together. Sayid learns some things about Boone, and the relationship between Shannon and Boone is tested. Who gets to cary the dynamite? Whoever guesses right gets to name a certain couple's child in my next post-island fic. Of course, I have to like it and agree and all which, most likely I will, unless it's an old fashion name.

speaking of which..

In my next post island fic, currently untitled(you know, I should just have a fic called 'Currently Untitled' give it some metaphorical meaning, and leave it at that- lol):

Sawyer deals with a personal stalker as Jack deals with problems with a former spouse.

I don't know when I will write this, but probably soon, because I'm really looking forward to doing it. I'm planning lots of stuff for it- and yes, **Crazyhorsegirl88**, the bunny is returning! In fact, I have lots of cute things planned with the bunny, especially Sawyer in the bunny. Hehe.. Sayid and Shannon will have cameos, and maybe even Alex as well. I think we'll be visiting Tennessee again in the fic, but I'm not sure. And yes, it will be J/K- or at least start out as such..muhaha. Nah, nothing _that_ serious will happen..maybe not..aren't I evil?

Anyway, thanks so much for the reviews! You guys rock!

October Sky


	6. Chapter 6

Forget Me Not

Chapter Six

Author's Note: In my series, Sayid and Shannon have yet to come close to the 'love yous'. Hm..guess Jack and Kate have been moving fast after all. Well, I guess not fast for them.

Author's Note2: Speaking of Jack and Kate, I'm sticking with my island story of them in my version of "Whatever the Case May Be" and Jack finding the file. Just note that he never did take the file with him. It was just kind of..forgotten(unless I forgot one of my own plots again).

Author's Note2: In Boone's incredibly cheesy but fun to write journal entries, he mentions seeing someone by the shore. For those who don't know the story of Boone and his hallucination..well..you'll have to let me know because it might take a while to explain. If you haven't noticed, Boone's story is a little AU here from the show.

_Shannon groaned for the hundredth time as Sayid felt his way around the edge of the ship._

_"How big could this thing be?" She complained. "They're not like this in the movies."_

_"Nothing's like it is in the movies," Sayid muttered with distaste, and then brightened his tone, "and I thought you worked around boats."_

_"I live around them," Shannon corrected, "and I've partied on them, but I've never actually had to walk around them."_

_"I think we're in luck," Sayid said, ignoring her statement._

_Stepping aside, Sayid revealed a hole that had blown into the side of the ship, just like the one that Jack had entered. _

_"Ladies first?" He said in a teasing voice._

_"No way," Shannon said, laughing as she practically pushed Sayid inside._

_Sighing, Shannon rushed down the stairs to answer the door for a second time that day. She calmed herself before opening the door, straightening out a skirt she had bought the previous day, and tugged on the handle. When she saw who was on the front step, Shannon had to bite down from gasping._

_The man standing in front of her had to be better looking than any movie star she had seen walk the streets of L.A. He looked to be Boone's age, with light blonde hair that had a dirty texture of it, cut short just above his ears. He stood wearing a blue polo and kaki shorts with black sandals, his hands stuffed in his pockets. Totally harmless._

_"Can I help you?" Shannon said, realizing that she had been staring once second to long._

_The guy was smiling at her. God how embarrassing!_

_"Yeah, I'm looking for a Boone Carlisle?" The guy said. "I'm uh..David. Old friend. Remember me?"_

_"David.." Shannon searched her memory._

_The only David she remembered was this geeky kid who, in high school, was head of the math club. Surely, surely, this was not that David._

_"I used to go to school with him," David went on, trying to trigger her memory, "remember, I used to run that stupid math club thing?"_

_Shannon almost choked. That's it. She wanted magazine coverage, documentaries, and talk show interviews. Years did things to people, but not these kind of things. Maybe she should start believing in miracles and stop letting her mom's old Elton John albums get into her head._

_"Right, that David," Shannon said, hiding her disbelief with overenthusiam, "yeah, he's here. He doesn't live here any more, in fact, you just caught him. Just flew in this morning. Hold on, I'll get him."_

_David smiled and nodded._

_"Boone!" Shannon called as she ran up the stairs. "Boone!"_

_No answer. Reaching his old bedroom, Shannon banged on the door._

_"Hey, bonehead," Shannon shouted, using her favorite nickname for her brother, "you'll never guess who's here. David and you would not believe-"_

_The door flew open and Shannon was cut off by Boone's hand cupping her mouth. She was shoved into the room, and Boone threw her onto the bed before locking the door._

_"What did you say?" Boone said, never giving Shannon a chance to catch her breath._

_"David," Shannon repeated, "that geek you used to hang out with?"_

_"He's here?" Boone said in horror._

_"Yeah," Shannon said, standing up, "what the hell is the problem?"_

_Boone stepped closer to her. Too close for comfort. Shannon took a step back and Boone had to grab her hand before she fell back on to the age old black and red plaid quilt on Boone's bed, which was actually half the size as hers. Once again, by choice. Boone had never taken much pride in being rich. He used the money when needed, but other than that, most of his life Boone had worn normal clothes and never spent more then ten bucks on dinner. Running his hands through his hair, Boone tried to think of the best lie that was far away from the complete truth. Easier said than done._

_"Listen," he whispered, "stay in here, lock the door, and if I don't come back in fifteen minutes, call the police."_

_"Boone, what's going on?" Shannon said, her enthusiasm gone and replaced with worry._

_"I'll be fine," Boone promised, "it's just a..debt."_

_"Then why would I need to call the police?" Shannon wished that she didn't have the habit of shedding tears whenever she let the slightest bit of emotion into her voice._

_"Just stay here," Boone said in a pleading tone._

_He walked out the door with that but stopped before leaving completely. Resting his hands on the edges of the door, Shannon watched as Boone stared down at the ground, as if trying to regain control of himself. Finally he turned around, and Shannon waited for him to stop._

_"Shannon," he began, certainty much calmer than before, "if anything does happen down there just remember that I love you."_

_"Ew!" Shannon cried. "Come on, you better have a better last goodbye than that. I mean.." her nose crinkled in disgust, "gross!"_

_"Not like that!" Boone exclaimed, rolling his eyes. "You know what I mean."_

_"Yeah yeah yeah," Shannon said, chuckling to herself, "same to you."_

_Boone shook his head and stepped into the hallway, dodging a black pillow that Shannon threw at him as he left. He didn't know what it was, but something about that conversation made Boone forget that he was possibly walking to his death._

Six years later, Shannon was walking behind another man that she loved, but in a different way, clinging onto him as he led her through the dark. But did she love him? Better yet, did he love her? Yes they had had dates, chatted often after most were asleep, and she could trust him in situations like this one, but did that count as love? She shook herself out of it. Who was she kidding? In love? Not her. It was just as unruly..so un..un..like her. Like David coming up to the door that day, causing her desiring eyes to pop out of their sockets. It just didn't fit in with the world.

"This must be the staircase," Sayid said," shining an unneeded light up the staircase, "maybe we should go tell Kate and your brother that-"

"Step," Shannon said suddenly, not even realized that she had done so until she noticed that Sayid was staring at her.

"I think I want to see how sturdy this is before we try to go up it," Sayid said, eyeing her.

"No," Shannon said, breaking herself out of her daze, "step brother-"

She looked at Sayid confidently.

"Boone's my step brother," she finished, "no blood relation."

Even though it wasn't the worst thing she could've said, it seemed to have been a hard confession for Shannon to make, so Sayid went along with it.

"Then that explains why the two of you look nothing alike," Sayid said with a smile."

Shannon smiled back. Of course he loved the guy. She could probably confess to Sayid every secret of her life, including the one night stand with Boone before the flight, and(though it may take a little longer) he would still give her that same smile. The only problem was going to be telling Sayid that she loved him. Naturally Shannon wanted to think of something incredibly romantic, but she knew that there was always a chance that they wouldn't make it to that point.

"Sayid, I have something I need to tell you," Shannon said, but her words were interrupted by a crash somewhere nearby.

Sayid's attention was immediately drawn to it, and the area diagonal to them was soon lit by his flashlight.

"Who's there?" Sayid said, his voice perfectly calm.

He didn't seem nervous or afraid at all. Another reason why Shannon loved him. She was literally shaking in her shoes, and it became noticeable when Sayid let go of her, reaching for a club that lay long forgotten on the ground. Picking it up, Sayid crept towards the darkness, and at the sound of another box moving, he slowly brought it down-

"Relax, relax!" A voice cried desperately. "It's just me!"

Sayid sighed and brought the club back down and then bent down to help Boone up from where he was sprawn amongst the boxes.

"Thanks," he muttered.

"Where's Kate?" Sayid said, noticing that she wasn't there.

"She found another way in, closer to Jack," Boone explained, "I really didn't want to see the reunion of those two, so I volunteered to come find you guys."

"We were just about to do the same," Shannon stated, "what happened to your arm?"

"Huh?" Boone glanced down and noticed that a long, deep cut was running down the skin of his right forearm, bleeding the color of dark silk. "Great."

Boone sat his backpack down and rummaged through it, searching for any type of cloth to stop the bleeding as blood dripped down to the wooden floor of the ship like water dripping from a leaky faucet. He moved too quickly and the bag tipped over, dumping its contents out onto the floor. A spare t-shirt, a bottle of water, a compass, and a piece of paper were all that appeared to take home to the back. Sayid picked up the paper, which landed beside his feet. Without sincerely meaning to, Sayid caught glance of what was written on the sheet of notebook paper: numbers. A series of them, along with directions. They looked like some kind of alien language, and as long as Shannon and Boone were on the ground taking care of his wound, Sayid's curiosity took the opportunity to study the notes that went something like:

4815162342: On

2432615184: Off

4400: Left

0044: Right

The pattern went on with different compass directions and even cordanites. Opposite directions were just opposite numbers, a simple code that ran down the page, filling up two columns and starting again on the back. On the floor, Shannon and Boone had begun arguing again, which brought Sayid back into reality.

"Shannon it's just a cut!" Boone was yelling.

"Fine!" Shannon scoffed. "But don't come looking for me when you get some kind of messed up infection."

"I wouldn't think of it," Boone said through gritted teeth, and stood up,"let's just go find Jack."

It was moments like this that made Boone wonder how it was the two had ever gotten the slightest bit close, like they had six years ago, and every so often now. Throwing his bag over his shoulder, Boone saw that Sayid had been holding something that had fallen out of the bag. It was a piece of paper, he could see, and Boone knew exactly what that torn page was, and he could only hope and pray that Sayid hadn't read it.

"Thanks," he muttered to Sayid, and tried to take the paper out of Sayid's hand.

But Sayid clung to it as if it was some confidential document.

"What's in the hatch?" Sayid inquired flatly.

"What?" Boone asked innocently.

"What's inside the hatch?" Sayid asked again. "I know you know. You know exactly what's going on here, maybe even more than Locke. What do you two know about this place that we don't?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Boone said with a darker innocence, and was saved by an outburst from Shannon.

"What is this stuff?"

Shannon was on the ground, looking in the boxes that Boone had fallen on. She picked up a rusted brown bottle, full to the rim with a dark liquid.

"Rum?"

Sayid took the bottle and examined it.

"Or something like it," he said, and placed the bottle into the bag, "I'll look at them when we get back to camp. Sawyer will be happy."

"He's not the only one," Shannon mumbled, and accepted Sayid's hand to help her up.

(Space)

"This place is amazing," Kate said in awe as her flashlight ran over the walls of the old ship, "I used to hide in places like this when I was a kid."

"What?" Jack said, amused. "You liked to play hide and seek? Why didn't you tell me, we could've played some time. Lot's of great places out here to hide."

Kate didn't reply. Jack was so clueless, but it wasn't his fault. He didn't have to grow up with a bad child hood. Well, it was bad, but not..she shook herself out of it. She'd sort that out later.

"Yeah, sure," Kate said, going along with him, "I was the queen at mind games."

Jack caught her sarcasm easily and side glanced her. Taking his attention meant not seeing the table that Jack bumped into. He bit down hard on his lower lip to keep from crying out, and rubbed the side of his arm compulsively before he looked down to what he ran into.

"What the hell-"

"What is it?" Kate's quick tone indicated that she was paying attention to ever word and move he made.

For his response, Jack handed her what looked like a small, black, carry on bag. Kate reached inside it, and found a well used passport. Opening it up, Kate was haunted by a face of a pretty blonde woman, whose last flight was taken August 15th, 2004.

"Oh my God," Kate whispered, staring at the stash on the table, "this is stuff..from are flight?"

"That's what it looks like," Jack said, feeling around the items curiously.

His hand then landed on something it probably shouldn't of: a file. A file he recognized. It was the file that he had found the day he and Kate were kidnapped by Ethan. Kate's file. The key to her past.

"Jack?"

Kate voice startled him, and Jack slid the file behind him.

"Find something?" He said, feeling his face grow hot in nerves.

It wasn't like Jack wanted to know what Kate did. He really didn't want to- or at least that's what he kept telling himself. But then again, it was nice to always have that choice..

"You could say that," Kate said, letting out a long breath of air that she had been holding.

Author's Note: Muahaha..evil cliffhangers! I had an extension added to what Sayid found in Boone's bag. Let's just say I edited it up a bit, and Shannon finds it instead. And that'll be part of the next story. Oh yes, I have some congrats to award, um..next chapter. Muahaha..but since only one of you replied to that 'contest', it should be obvious.

**Crazyhorsegirll88:** Start thinking of names! The last names shall remain confidential though. I just get more and more evil, don't I? And yes, I am that same person at lost-forums. And a while back(I'm finally getting around to review replies!) in the last story you said you were wondering what Jack was thinking during that interrogation(I think you said..)well, the poor guy was a bit confused, but my best guess is "Man I could use a cheeseburger right now!" Ha. Nah, he was thinking "Why didn't I see this coming?" How could I of let this happen?" ect. Typical 'Jack' thoughts. And I love your theory with the hatch, it kind of parallels(my word of the week- a new favorite, shrug, don't know why) to mine.

**Chris3137:** Thanks for the 'good luck' I usually don't get nervous..usually. The only problem is, in one of my dances I refer to a move we do as my 'Jack and Kate move' because the lyrics and all parallel(oops..there I go again!) so I hope I don't squee or do a cheesy smile!

**Orlando-crazy:** For once, Jack will be okay! But I can tell you that there's a specific reason that Danielle didn't want Alex to go to the _Black Rock_, and it has to do with her knowledge of Jack's horrible tracking skills, and a fear that he might find something or that something might happen. Let's just say that results from searching the ship won't kick in for a fic or two.

**holly: **They could've done so much with Boone's character! I'm in love with the plot I've given the poor guy, and write about it as much as possible.

**Freckles-101:** First off, I love your screen name! Secondly, thanks for sticking around! (hugs) "Influenza" will be done, I think after the next story I do. I have too much spare time, two months of summer, and too many ideas! And thanks for the congrats on not hurting Jack! I'm taking it out on Boone instead, as you saw in this chapter. I did do that ceiling dive though, of course, it _is_ an old ship, so it could be expected.

Thanks so much for the reviews!

Coming up next, in "Forget Me Not":

What did Kate find? You'll find out..after the break. (I wish I had a dollar for every time Ryan Seacrest has said that!)

In my next fic, "Falling Up":

Shannon and Sayid sneak around to get some answers out of Boone(if that makes sense) and Jack takes care of a patient who has a past connection to Sawyer.

Thanks again for the reviews! You guys rock!

Until next time..

October Sky


	7. Chapter 7

Forget Me not

Chapter Seven

Author's Note: Sayid's character is one of the hardest to write. Just the way he acts and speaks, it's harder to impersonate than most of the characters. Bottom line, please bare with Sayid in this chapter. The conversation he and Boone have about Locke should have been a Boone and Jack conversation, but I wanted him with Kate most of the time, and there wasn't room to bring it around in the beginning. Not to mention, because of Shannon, I think that the Sayid/Boone friendship is going to parallel(there I go again!) with the Jack/Sawyer friendship, so I wanted to work on that. I'll try my best to get him into character, so I hope that you're not disappointed!

"Why was he on that plane?" Kate said, speaking to herself, though she still received an answer from Jack.

"Why don't you just ask him?"

Jack sighed exasperatedly. He was tired, worn out, and all through this he knew that even if they did find the dynamite, they couldn't go anywhere without finding Shannon, Sayid, and Boone first. And that's assuming that none of them had gotten themselves hurt.

"I did," Kate said, shuffling the sheets of paper again, "he says that he likes to travel."

Jack snorted.

"Come on," he said, "you believed him?"

Kate stared at the manila file she held in her hands. It was a police report- make that entire notes from an investigation. An investigation of a crime that had acurred over twenty years ago, concerning a suicide and homicide that took place all in front of a little boy- Sawyer- or as the report referred to him, James Judith Ford. God no wondered Sawyer never liked his name, it really was as bad as he had made it out to be. It also showed that at one time, many years ago, his parents were religious people, or at least people who hoped that going to church and naming their son after religious figures would shed some light on their families. Keep praying.

"This stuff is-" Kate searched for words, "-insane. I can't believe it. He's like some..monster. He's been tracking down this guy for years."

"I thought you knew that," Jack pointed out.

"Yeah," Kate said, "but then it just seemed like some pity story. I mean, I believed him and all but-"

"It never seemed real," Jack finished for her.

"Yeah," Kate said breathlessly, looking back down at the old man in a picture clipped to the information staring back up at her with haunting eyes.

That was the first time that she had noticed the tiny miniscule writing that read _John Coiler, 1950-2004_. For the first time since finding the information in what had appeared to be Sawyer's bag(she had found his license in a side pocket), Kate flipped the page and found herself reading a news heading dated two days before the crash:

_Around three A.M. this morning the body of John Coiler was found dead in the alleyway beside the shrimp stand he ran just thirty minutes out of Sydney. Forensics found no evidence at the scene, and no fingerprints on the body. The coroner's guess is that Coiler was shot some four hours earlier. No suspects have been named but the investigation is being looked into. If you have any information on Coiler, please call.._

There was a number listed afterwards, but Kate didn't bother to read it, because she already knew who the murderer was.

(Space)

Sayid let Shannon lead the way for a while(there wasn't much to the upper deck, as long as you noted the sloping service) while he hung back with Boone, tempted to get a few answers.

"How's your arm?" Sayid said, trying to get a conversation started.

"It's just a cut," Boone sighed, feeling like he had been repeating the phrase all afternoon.

"Do you think we'll make it back in time?"

The question caught Boone off guard.

"What?" He said, puzzled.

"To help Locke," Sayid explained, "you're the only one here who knows what's inside the hatch. Will he have enough air until we get back?"

"Um.." Boone hadn't really thought about it, "I guess. I mean, it's a pretty big, open space."

"How big?" Sayid said curiously.

"Is this your way of trying to get me to tell you about the hatch without me realizing what I'm doing?" Boone said, spelling out Sayid's plan perfectly. "Sorry but, looks like your losing your touch. Guess you need to practice on those interrogation skills."

"So it's big then?" Sayid continued, ignoring Boone's comment. "Large enough for airspace. Is there a second entrance?"

"Not that we know of."

The answer didn't give away much, so Boone decided to save the lies.

"What does it do?" Sayid inquired. "The thing that you need the numbers for."

"Oh," Boone said casually, "that doesn't have anything to do with the hatch. That's just a-"

"Who are you protecting?" Sayid said, stopping.

Boone stooped as well, and turned.

"What are you talking about?" Boone asked nervously.

This was it. Sayid's plan was working flawlessly, even as Boone knew exactly what he was doing.

"Is it Locke?" Sayid went on. "Are you protecting him? Or hiding something for him?"

Boone just stared at him, trying to comprehend that.

"I'm not hiding anything-"

"Do you honestly think that Locke would go through this much trouble to protect you?" Sayid said sharply. "Had it been you shut in the hatch, and not him, would he of come and gotten us?"

"I wouldn't be trapped down there," Boone declared, not wanting to think about what Sayid was trying to process through his mind.

Because he knew Sayid was right. Locke wouldn't of gone and found them. He would've stayed out there for days trying to open the hatch himself, or go back to however he did it originally. And in the end, if he couldn't find a way, most likely Locke would've just made up some lie about his death. Maybe Boone would've been lucky and his death would've been cooler than just falling off a cliff.

"Why not?" Sayid said, breaking Boone from his realizations.

"Because I know how to work the thing?" Boone said, so determined to prove himself against Locke that he didn't realize what he was saying.

"What thing?" Sayid's eyes narrowed darkly.

"Nothing," Boone said quickly and turned to try and keep up with Shannon.

Boone tried to calm himself down as he took his time walking down the stairway, step by step. All through this his mind was telling him that he was walking to death. But David couldn't of changed that much could he? Maybe he was still weak.

When he reached the main room, he realized immediately that the front door was closed. Nothing in the room had been removed or misplaced, and the rug in front of the door was perfectly straight. Just in case, Boone quietly moved over to the door and reached up to lock it, praying that Shannon was obeying his orders. That's when the attack came.

Something hard smashed against his skull, and glass fell all around him as Boone spun, and fell against the door.

"That's for all the crap you've put me through the past two years," David growled.

Through his blurry vision, Boone could tell that what Shannon was going to say was true- two years could do a lot to people, and for David, it had turned out on the positive side. Boone was about to say something when a gun was pulled on him. Nothing was said, and he realized that despite the weapon, it was still his turn to talk.

"What the hell do you want from me?" He said finally.

"Either you go to the nearest police station and turn yourself in," David said with an errie calmness to his voice, "or I'll kill you."

"I'm not turning myself in," Boone said, trying to pick himself up off the floor.

"Well then," David said, a small grin forming at the corner of his mouth.

Because that was the answer he had really wanted, but Boone had no time to talk himself out of the situation. David pulled the trigger, and a shot was fired.

(Space)

Sayid and Boone's conversation was cut short by a scream by Shannon. They both ran towards where she was hovered over the railing. Sayid was the first to reach Shannon, and he helped her turn over. Shannon's face had turn a mixture of a deadly pale and a sickly blue. She was shaking terribly, and was clearly having trouble breathing.

"Shannon," Sayid said in a hurry, "what's wrong?"

"She's having an asthma attack!" Boone answered for him, glaring. "You've got to help her!"

"I've got to help her?"

"You did last time!"

"I wasn't the one that stayed by her side!" Sayid argued. "I don't even know what's going on!"

A cry of pain interrupted their arguing, and their attention was turned back to Shannon.

"Go find Jack!" Sayid instructed.

Boone stood up to go do just that.

"And hurry," Sayid added, and Boone turned back to look at him, "Locke's still out there."

Nodding, Boone ran off, hoping that his directional instincts were right.

Author's Note: Directional instincts? Is that even a saying? Lol. Oh well, what Boone means is, he hopes that he can find Jack by following where his instincts tell him to go. Yeah..wow, that last plot? Came out of nowhere. Hm..those two are always having to save that girl, aren't they? I have to ask, do my repeating plots get annoying? I'm trying to think of originals- I promise! Sorry for the short chapter, that just seemed like a good place to end. I'm busy Thursday, so you probably won't see another chapter until Thursday night. Sorry. Anyway, thanks for the reviews! Glad you guys like it!

Next up, on "Forget Me Not":

What happened with Boone and the attack thing? Well just remember that Boone is alive now, so either he got shot..or someone saved him. We all have to ask ourselves the question, where did Shannon learn how to use a gun? I'm about to give my version..sometime. Flashbacks or island, you'll see!

Thanks again for the reviews!

Until next time..

October Sky


	8. Chapter 8

Forget Me Not

Chapter Eight

Boone raced down the steps of the _Black Rock_, praying that this path would be the right one. He stumbled on the fourth step, but quickly picked himself back up, and lowered himself into the dark.

(Space)

Jack had pulled down a bunch of the items on the table and were going through them on the ground. They were still waiting for someone to come and get him, and in the mean time, had been able to find no dynamite from where they were.

The staircase just near them was too unstable and too steep to attempt to climb, and not to mention that Kate was so transfixed with whatever it was that she found about Sawyer that she hadn't looked up in ages.

Among the things Jack had pulled out were a few purses(most of the objects that had been inside- presumably, anyway- had been removed previously to finding them) flight pamphlets, books, the average carry on luggage. But one particular item had caught his attention: a manilla envelope, similar to the one Kate had found. The only difference was, that this one wasn't from the plane. Jack fumbled with the silver bind that held the packaging together before finally resulting to ripping the envelope apart. Kate glanced over his way, but didn't say anything as she turned back to the information she was studying. Reaching in the envelope, Jack pulled out a few slick piece of papers: pictures.

Pictures of a boat. A cruise ship that sat in the banks of an ocean, tied to steaks that held it to the land. That was the first picture. The second was of the other side of the ship. In purple writing the name '_Moondance_' was painted on the side of the vessel. Jack didn't take cruises, but he knew enough to make an educated guess that the ship was named after Van Morrison's song "Moondance". More pictures photographed the land around the ships, scenery that looked like Europe.

Next Jack found the manifest of the ship's crew. He didn't recognize any of the names of the crew, until he ran over two that caused his heart to skip a beat: Alexis Rousseau and Adam Romero. The information startled him, but at the same time, Jack almost had expected it. Nearly a month and they still knew nothing about her except that Alex had been shipwrecked on the island, was the daughter of Danielle, and had been carrying along a passport to Europe and a gun that she said wasn't hers. But wait..Alex had said she had never been on a plane. She was afraid of flying..or was she? At first Jack felt defeated and then angry and betrayed. Why didn't he see the flaw in her story earlier? Better yet, why were the two working on a cruise ship, with a gun buried with their luggage?

"Jack!"

"We're in here!" Jack yelled without thinking.

Standing, he stuffed the recently found information into his bag(where Kate's was also hidden), and Kate followed him to the staircase. Boone's face appeared above them.

"We can get to the third step," Jack explained, "and then it caves in. Pull me up, and then I can help Kate."

Boone did so, and Jack rolled over once on the upper deck. For a moment, he was a little taken aback by the scenery. He had never viewed the island from a higher point of view, but it just seemed so..different from up here. So normal. Waves crashed to hs left, and a cool breeze blew over them as Jack reached down to help Kate up.

"It's Shannon," Boone said, a little out of breath, "she's having an asthma attack."

"What?" Jack said. "Now?"

"She's not supposed to go on long hikes or anything strenuous like that," Boone said, "that's why she doesn't ever go to the caves."

"She seemed fine when she went with us to get a transceiver signal," Kate said, puzzled, crossing her arms.

"She had her inhalers then," he reminded her, "but now- it's bad. Come on. Sayid's with her."

Jack and Kate raced after him until they spotted where Shannon was, slumped against the railing of the deck with Sayid beside her. It didn't look like she was awake. Sayid stood to greet them, and warned them of how bad the situation was.

"It's worse than it was the first attack," he told them in a low voice, "I think her throat's closing up. She's only been out for five minutes."

Boone paled in worry, but Jack hid his, rushing over and knocking Sayid out of the way, saying "Move over", though not giving him a choice. Boone, Kate, and Sayid watched as Jack placed his fingers on Shannon's neck, feeling for a pulse.

"Can't you try CPR or something?" Boone said desperately.

"She's breathing," Jack told him, "I don't know why she passed out."

"Maybe it was the heat," Kate suggested, "maybe she just got dehydrated."

"That was probably it," Jack admitted, "someone get me some water."

Sayid handed him a bottle from Shannon's bag on the demand, and Jack uncapped it. Prying open Shannon's mouth, Jack forced a small mouthful of water into her lungs. The cool liquid woke Shannon up in loud gasp for breath. She was still unable to breathe properly.

"Kate, Boone," Jack said, turning to them, "I need you two to go back down where we were, and search for anything that might help her. You might want to look for a cabin too. Sayid, I need you to stay here and keep an eye on Shannon while I go and see if I can find any of those herbs that Sun used last time."

"Wait," Sayid said, stopping Jack before he could stand, "what about Locke."

"Right," Jack said, sighing, "new plan. Boone, you go look for the inhalers, Kate go find the herbs, I'll go find the dynamite and go help Locke."

"I'll take the dynamite," Boone said suddenly.

"What?" Jack spun around. "No, I'll do it."

Boone stepped up to him.

"You don't even know your way back!" He argued. "And do you know anything about dynamite?"

"Do you?" Jack retorted, taken aback.

"I used to run a fireworks display every Fourth of July through high school," Boone explained, "not exactly dynamite, but close enough."

Jack sighed in defeat.

"Fine, " he said, "there were some boxes we didn't open."

"I'll show him," Kate volunteered.

Jack looked down as she left. He wanted to protest and tell her that he didn't want her around the explosives, that it wasn't safe, but he knew the protest would be useless.

(Space)

Kate jumped down after Boone, catching herself before losing balance as the soles of her hiking boots hit the floorboards of the ship. In front of her, Boone turned on his flashlight and began looking around.

"What did you and Jack find?" Boone asked curiously.

"Some stuff from the plane," Kate said, "a bunch of luggage."

Boone's head whipped back around, making Kate jump a little.

"Where?" He demanded calmly.

"Um.." Kate thought, looking around, and pointed, "over there."

Completely forgetting the explosives, Boone stepped over some fallen debris from where the floor above caved in and found the table of luggage. He immediately leafed through the objects, until his hands fell over a brown duffel bag. Boone stopped.

"I found the dynamite!" Kate called from somewhere in the darkness.

"Um.." Boone tried hard to concentrate on what was going on. "Great, I'll be there in a second."

Taking the bag with him, Boone used the light to find his way to Kate, who stood beside a box of explosives, her hands on her hips.

"Any idea how to open this thing?" She asked hopefully.

"Just help me drag it outside," Boone sighed, "I'll deal with it then."

It took nearly fifteen minutes for the two of them to drag the box out. They first had to clear the path, and then trust that the box wouldn't blow up on them. Gently, they set the old crete onto the ground, and Boone lifted the top off to reveal stacks of dynamite.

"So how are we going to do this?" Kate said, trying not to let her nerves show.

"They need to be wrapped," Boone said after a pause, trying to remember all that he was taught about explosives. "They'll sweat nitro..nitro something. Just be very..very careful with them."

Kate nodded and reached down, praying that she would live to see the end of the day. Hours seemed to pass before her fingers landed on the edges of one of the thousands of dynamite. Closing her eyes, Kate raised the explosive out of its place. Opening one eye, it took a moment for Kate to realize that she was still alive, and not blown into bits and pieces.

"Sit it down," Boone instructed, motioning to a shirt he had pulled out of a bag and drenched with water.

She started to do so.

"Carefully," Boone reminded her when she started to go too fast.

Eyeing him, Kate nodded, and slowed her pace. When the dynamite was safely on the ground, Kate sighed in relief. Boone began to wrap it as she worked on the second, and then a third.

"Kate," Boone said before they started packaging the dynamite, "I found some inhalers in the front pocket of the bag. Get them out, take them to Jack."

Boone failed to mention that the backpack was his, but Kate didn't take note of it as they cautiously placed the dynamite inside.

"And just incase anything happens," Boone added after he had the pack on his shoulders, "you might want to see if Jack and Sayid want to take some back. That's assuming, you know.."

Both of their eyes trailed to the railing of the ship, where miniscule blurs could be seen in a distant.

"I'll ask," Kate said, putting the inhalers in a pocket of her pack.

After wishing him luck, Kate watched as Boone disappeared down the path, and made her way back inside the ship.

Author's Note: I'm soooo sorry for the lack of updates and short chapters but hectic is the only way to describe my past week. i couldn't even be sure that I'd be able to get on later, so I decided to leave it here. (hangs head in shame) Bad writer, I know.

Coming up next, on "Forget Me Not":

Notice something about that ending? They left the dynamite outside. No, not a writer's mistake. Actually, yeah, it was, but then I thought, "Hm..I could do something with that." Like a plot I had planned but couldn't fit in. Is it bad? Yeah. But don't worry, no one's dying on my watch! In fact, no one's even getting hurt(they may be knocked against the side of the ship, but nothing serious). Aren't you guys proud of me?

Freckles-101: I noticed that about the italics right after I shut down the computer and went to bed. Sorry about that, I'll try and remember to fix it tonight.

Once again, I apologize for the wait and the shortness. You guys deserve better and I'll try and pick up the pace this week. But now I must continue with the marathon of The Dead Zone season three to prepare for the season premiere tonight, and a new episode of The 4400. I'll try and write more later. Thanks again!

October Sky


	9. Chapter 9

Forget Me Not

Chapter Nine

Author's Note: Don't forget that I know nothing about dynamite except that it blows up.

Last time on "Forget Me Not":

"_Can I help you?" Shannon said, realizing that she had been staring once second to long._

"_Yeah, I'm looking for a Boone Carlisle?" The guy said. "I'm uh..David. Old friend. Remember me?"_

_(s)_

"_Boone, what's going on?" Shannon said, her enthusiasm gone and replaced with worry._

"_I'll be fine," Boone promised, "it's just a..debt."_

(s)

"_What the hell do you want from me?" He said finally._

"_Either you go to the nearest police station and turn yourself in," David said with an errie calmness to his voice, "or I'll kill you."_

"_I'm not turning myself in," Boone said, trying to pick himself up off the floor._

"_Well then," David said, a small grin forming at the corner of his mouth._

_Because that was the answer he had really wanted, but Boone had no time to talk himself out of the situation. David pulled the trigger, and a shot was fired._

_(And Now)_

_But the shot wasn't from David's gun. Boone didn't have time to wonder where it came from before he had to scramble to the side in order to not be squashed by the fallen David. He stared at the body for a few moments before reminding himself of the shooter. _

_"Is he dead?"_

_Boone found himself not surprised at all to find Shannon facing him, the gun still pointed straight forward. She stood in shock, shaking, unable to move. Realizing that Shannon was still waiting for him to answer her, Boone crawled over to David and checked for a pulse. He found one._

_"Yeah," he answered in a near whisper, and after a moment of recollecting himself, Boone looked back up at Shannon, "where did you learn to use a gun?"_

_"Back in New York," Shannon began, "when I was a kid, I found my dad's pistol. He figured that as long as we were living in the city, I might as well know how to protect myself. I found the gun earlier when I was looking through your stuff."_

_Boone shook his head._

_"Some things never changed," he said, and looked back at the body, "we need to call the police."_

_"I thought you were hiding something," Shannon inquired, eyeing him._

_"Don't worry about me," Boone said, "you mind putting that thing down?"_

_Shannon hadn't even realized she had still been holding the gun, but she put it down like it was nothing._

_"Hand me the phone," Boone sighed in exhaustion._

(Space)

Boone's jaw clenched, determined, as he tried to block out visions of himself blowing up or rolling down the side of a mountain. He was the only one of the group who knew what was in the hatch, but even with that, he had no clue what kind of potential danger Locke could be in. But the fact that any given second his life could be over forced Boone to slow down a few paces.

(Space)

Kate made it back to Sayid and Jack in record time.

"Here," she said, throwing herself on the ground beside Jack and shoved the inhalers into his hands.

"Where'd you find-"

"Just hurry up!" Kate cut him off. "She doesn't look good."

Jack left his questions for later and after talking through the inhaler routine, had fully succeeded in getting Shannon to breathe in a slow, steady pace again. The three sighed and Shannon closed her eyes, laying back, but when she opened them again a few seconds later, it didn't take long for her to notice that one of them was missing.

"Where's Boone?" Shannon said, looking around.

"He went to help Locke," Kate explained, glancing towards Jack.

"What?" Shannon exclaimed. "He's out there on his own-"

Shannon was doing an incredible impersonation of an over-worried mother. She turned to Jack, desperate.

"Jack-" she looked at him with pleading eyes as if saying 'you know what I'm talking about'.

"Boone will be fine," Jack assured her, "he's probably already-"

Jack's reassurance was interrupted by a loud explosion that rocked the ship. As if they were on sea instead of land, the four castaways felt the vessel tip to its side and Sayid covered Shannon's head just before it hit the wooden planks behind her, and Kate tumbled on top of Jack. Ashes showered the earth along with fallen wood, limbs, and leaves. Then, catching them off guard, the ship rocked back the other way, and Jack grasped Kate's hand before she slid to the other side of the ship. A moment of silence followed, and once it seemed like it was over, Jack helped Kate sit up.

"Boone-" Shannon said simply, with worry.

Sayid didn't have to announce his leaving as he was out of sight in a flash with Jack, Kate, and Shannon right behind him. Jack didn't have time protest Shannon's leaving before they got down the stairs, because there was no turning back once they reached the wreckage which was once the lower deck of the ship.

Dust and ash covered the basement-type room, and Jack was suddenly glad that he had grabbed what he could of the supplies they found, because there was no salvaging now. Sayid moved away some of the wreckage to make an exit out, causing sunshine to fill the room with anticipation. Even though minutes earlier they were up in fresh air, it felt like they were entering a whole new world.

A creator set where the ground used to be, and Sayid had to sidestep around it to get to the path. There was no sign of Boone.

"I'm going back to the hatch," Sayid announced.

"Wait-" Shannon bit her lip, searching for a reason for Sayid to stay.

Sayid looked at her in apology, and then turned to Jack.

"Found out what you can," he said, "and meet me there."

Jack nodded and the three of them stood in silence until Sayid was gone.

"I can't believe we left this out," Kate ground, staring down at the creator.

"You didn't exactly have a way of getting it back in," Jack pointed out, just to make her feel better.

"He just seemed like he was in a hurry to leave," Kate continued, ignoring him, "like he was hiding something."

"Where did you get the inhalers?" Shannon asked suddenly.

Kate looked up.

"What?"

"You heard me."

Kate shrugged.

"Boone found them," she said, "in a bag he found."

"Did he take it with him?" Kate just stared at her. "The bag? Did he take it with him?"

"Yeah," Kate said, remembering, "I think so."

Shannon smiled.

"Good."

(Space)

Anxiety got the better of Boone and he picked up the pace about a half a mile before entering the familiar atmosphere of the hatch. Carefully Boone put his backpack on the ground, and took out the dynamite. It was then that he realized that lighting the fuse would take more than one person.

"Need some help?"

Boone jumped at Sayid's voice. How had he caught up so fast? Then again, it wouldn't of taken long had Sayid left right after he had, since he had been walking as slow as a snail.

"Sure," Boone shrugged, figuring he had no other choice.

Sayid helped him unravel the fire to light the fuse.

"Wait," Boone said right before we were about to light it, "shouldn't we warn Locke about what we're doing. I mean, just in case he's still conscious?"

"How are we going to-"

But Boone had already jumped down into the pit that made up the circumference of the hatch. He used a series of long and short beats against the hatch that Sayid recognize shortly after the second set.

"Morse code," he said, slightly surprised, "where did you learn it?"

Boone shrugged.

"Around," he listened for a moment and then sighed, "he's not answering."

"Out of curiosity," Sayid said, "how steep is it down there? To wherever Locke is, I mean."

"Twenty, thirty steps," said Boone, "but after the effects of the dynamite, the stepladder will probably break."

"Step ladder?" Sayid raised an eyebrow. "One that you two just made, or was it already there?"

"Already there," Boone said as Sayid helped him back up to land.

He looked back down to the hatch.

"So I guess we better do this."

Sayid nodded.

"I'll light the fuse," Sayid volunteered.

"No," Boone said, "I'll do it."

"Why is it that you're always one of the first to volunteer to risk their lives?" Sayid inquired.

"Why shouldn't I?"

Boone bent down to light the fuse and knowing that there was no talking him out of it.

"Remember to jumped back before-"

"I know," Boone sighed, a little agitated.

He lit the fuse and leaped onto the level land, a good fifteen feet from the hatch. Under his breath he counted down the ten seconds promised and then covered his ears, preparing himself for the explosion that came seconds later, rocking the island like an earthquake, sending Boone backwards into some brush that covered him as ashes showered above. Silence followed, and quiet footsteps told Boone that Sayid was still alive, and doing anything but taking his time in finding out what was inside the hatch.

Once on the surface of the hatch, Sayid and Boone removed the door to the hatchway which now sat a half an inch off the ground. The dark tunnel lurked below, welcoming them to the mystery of a high-tech, forgotten world.

"I'll go first," Boone said, "there's a step that's broken about a third of a way down- if there are any steps left."

And there were. Surprisingly, only a few steps were missing from the long case, and it was a rather easy trip down. Boone was the first to find Locke unconscious near the computer system that Sayid, luckily, hadn't discovered yet. Hoping to find a way to get Locke out without Sayid even taking a second thought to what was inside the hatch, Boone kept his flashlight low to the ground, careful to not shine it behind him.

"He's still breathing," he informed Sayid, "we should get him back to-"

"Exactly how long have you known this was here?"

Boone groaned. Of course Sayid would've brought some kind of source of light down with him. Now came the part of explaining why a computer system the size of a big screen tv was buried underground in the middle of an island in the South Pacific.

"Only two weeks give or take," Boone said truthfully.

Sayid stared at the system in awe.

"What does it do?" He said, and Boone was thankful that there was no sign of anger of fury in his voice, and he could only hope that he got the same response once Locke woke up.

"Here," Boone said, momentarily forgetting about Locke and feeling somewhat superior to Sayid, for once knowing something that no one else did.

Sayid watched in interest as Boone keyed the code to turn on the system, which he was surprised to find off. A loud creak sounded above them, but nothing followed, and Boone supposed that that was what happened when the door was opened the right way.

"Locke must of accidentally shut the system down," Boone said, "shut down the place. Kind of like in _Jurassic Park_."

"Right," Sayid said bitterly, having no idea what Boone was talking about.

Boone keyed in a few more of the codes and the hatch was lit up in bright colors of yellow, blue, and green, and Sayid was presented with a map.

"Is this the island?" He said slowly.

"Yeah," Boone said, his fingers moving swiftly over the keyboard with a practiced ease, "and that, is Jack, Kate, and Shannon."

He pointed out three moving dots on top of a brown surface that was a path to the caves.

"It looks like they decided to head back," Sayid observed, "we could probably meet them there."

Boone looked up to the sky above them.

"I'll take our bags if you can carry Locke," he offered.

He had no intentions of staying down here longer than he had to.

"Unless Jack wanted to-"

"Jack doesn't need to know," Sayid said, sounding as if the statement hadn't been planned, "I think we'll have a hard enough time keeping Locke sane the next few days."

Boone chuckled, knowing he was right. At least now if Locke killed him, he'd have a witness that could make up a plausible lie.

Author's Note: Horrible ending, I know, but it's all I had. I'm so sorry about the wait. I've been fighting writer's block all through this story.

**You might want to read this next part, if you usually skip author's notes:**

But let's get down to business(oh man, I'll have that song stuck in my head all night!). I can do two stories after this, the off-island fic and another on-island fic(Sawyer centric) Both will require some time for me to plan it out, since I have bits and pieces of futures fics planned. So you decide, which do you want first? I can warn you, this story may end in a mini cliffhanger- I just hope I get everyone back next time!

Coming up next, in "Forget Me Not:

In a final chapter(I think) things are settled between Shannon, Boone, and Sayid, though I haven't quite decided who I want to have the conversation with Boone: Sayid or Shannon; and Kate breaks the news to Sawyer who, well, provides a nice little mini-cliffie(such a cute word..lol!) for us. Oh and this line: **"I think we'll have a hard enough time keeping Locke sane the next few days."** was not put in there by mistake. Hint. Hint. Oh, and you guys also decide: do you want me to wrap up the Shannon/Boone flashback, or leave it where it ends?

Thanks sooo much for continuing to review, and I hope that when I do start whatever new story I start, you guys will stick around!

Until next time..

October Sky


	10. Chapter 10

Forget Me Not

Chapter Ten

Locke woke up a few hours after Sayid and Boone carried him back. Jack could find no diagnosis for his condition, and Locke couldn't explain a reason for falling unconscious. Sayid held up his promise of not telling Jack about the hatch, and by sunset, things were back to normal.

"Wild day," Kate commented to Jack as he cleaned up around the caves.

"Yeah," Jack agreed and stood to greet Kate, "you've been awful quite."

"So have you," Kate said and then sighed, knowing that if they kept this up, the conversation would get no where, "it's that stuff I found about Sawyer. Well, not Sawyer but-"

Right on cue, Sawyer entered the caves to refill his water, and offer some smart remarks to Charlie on a haircut Claire had recently given him.

"Why don't you tell him," Jack suggested, not in a mean way, but in an advise giving way.

Kate nodded and turned, following Sawyer out of the caves. Jack watched her go. That's when he noticed Alex entering the caves. He hadn't seen her since early that morning(which seemed to Jack like an eternity ago) and hoped that she wasn't the kind to hold a grudge.

"Hey Alex!"

Jack caught her just as she was about to ask Claire something. She studied Jack for a moment, as if trying to decide if he was worth talking to, and then after bidding a farewell to Claire, walked over to him.

"What's up?" She said casually, though it was clear that talking to him wasn't one of her top priorities.

"I was wanting to talk to you," Jack said, knowing that getting the truth out of Alex was going to be just as hard as getting the truth out of Kate.

"I was actually going to stay up here for the night," it was then clear that she was either still mad at her mother about the hatch thing, or something new all together, "can it wait until-"

"It's kind of important," Jack tried saying it so that he boxed Alex in, giving her no choice.

"Fine," Alex sighed, and followed Jack outside.

(Space)

Kate had followed Sawyer back to the beach, though she could have let her presence be known at any time. She watched as he failed miserably at lighting a fire with a well-used lighter and chuckled at his faults. He was worse than Jack. From their skills, it had appeared that neither had stepped foot off a dirt road, which seemed odd coming from Sawyer, since he was from the south.

"Need a light?" She said, approaching him from behind with a small smile cracking at the corners of her mouth.

Not having any other choice, Sawyer held his hand out, and Kate tossed him the lighter, easily replaying a scene from their first month on the island.

"So what's on your mind?" Sawyer said, leaning back after getting his fire going. "Doc boring ya?"

"Hardly," Kate replied dryly.

She took a seat next to him and stared into the fire, realizing for the first time how hard this was going to be.

"You gonna say somethin' or were you wanting me to ease your worries?" Sawyer said, annoyed by her silence. "'Cause I ain't no therapist-" his eyes narrowed, "-unless there was something else that you wanted."

"You're a pig Sawyer," Kate said, as equally bitter as before.

Sighing, Kate finally worked out what she was going to say.

"When we went to the _Black Rock_," she began, "we found some stuff."

"Found some stuff?" Sawyer repeated, uninterested.

"Yeah," Kate said, "stuff like this."

She showed him the manila envelope which he immediately recognized it. Kate felt her heart lift in hope that maybe for once she'd get something out of him, but instead Sawyer stared at the envelope with eyes of fire. It was clearly something that he never planned on seeing again and now it was coming back, haunting him. For a moment it seemed like Sawyer was going to say something, and Kate prepared herself for the worst, but it never came. Instead he leaned forward towards the fire, letting the envelope dropped until Kate stopped him.

"What the hell are you doing?" She demanded, pulling him back.

"Burning it," he stated through gritted teeth.

"What do you want to do that for?" Kate questioned.

"You don't catch on very fast, do you?" Sawyer said, and stood up.

"Where are you going?" She said, standing up and following him.

"You want to fix my life?" He said furiously, turning back to her. Sawyer thrust the envelope into her chest. "There, take notes, be my guest."

He began to storm off towards the jungle, leaving Kate by herself with the fire and packet.

"Sawyer!" Kate called desperately.

"What?" Sawyer spun back around.

Something suddenly came to her out of nowhere. Actually, it was a piece of information that had struck her a while back, but with everything that had gone on, she repetivly forgotten to mention it.

"What name did you give Hurley for the manifest?" She asked, stepping towards him.

"Why the hell are you asking me that now?"

"Just answer the question," she sighed.

"Fine," Sawyer huffed, "my real name. Figured I might as well give it to them in case they asked for the real manifest."

"And you're real name's the one that's on the manifest, right?" Kate said, walking towards him.

Sawyer couldn't see where she was going with this.

"Yeah."

Soon Kate was right up in his face, inches from him. If Sawyer wasn't so determined to know what was going on, he probably would've tried to kiss her.

"Did you ever wonder why no one brought up the fact that no one mentioned your alias on the manifest?" Kate stared straight into her eyes, searching for an a reaction.

"I just thought that they were so concerned about Ethan that-"

"Sawyer," Kate said, annoyed with his denial, "think about it."

For the first time, Sawyer did, and when he realized what she was talking about, he cursed, turning to the ground, not wanting her to see his face because he knew that Kate could read right through it.

"Sawyer," she said again, more soothingly, and touched his arm.

Sawyer jerked it out of her grip, and whirled around, heading back towards the jungle as if the conversation never happened. Kate started to follow him, but Sawyer was moving to fast and was soon out of sight before she could even make out a trail. Angry with herself, Kate sunk back down into the ground, staring into the fire that she didn't have the strength to put out.

(Space)

On the other side of camp, Alex and Jack were nearing the beach when Jack realized that he hadn't said a word of the conversation he knew he needed to start.

"When we were at the _Black Rock_," Jack began finally, starting out his conversation with Alex similar to the way Kate had begun hers with Sawyer, "we found some things that had been taken from the island; and one of the things I found..scared me."

Alex let out a laugh.

"I'm not a kid, Jack," she reminded him, "you can use 'big people's words' around me."

"Right," Jack chuckled and then grew serious a little too quickly for Alex's liking, "but one of the things-" he was going to say 'was about you' but decided against it at the last minute.

He showed her instead the envelope he had found. Alex took it cautiously, eyeing him before opening it. When she did, Alex took a minute to look through the pictures and it wasn't until the third that she realized what she was looking at.

"I never saw these," she said quietly, "they were his."

"Was it his plan?" Jack asked calmly. "Whatever you two were doing working on a cruise ship with guns?"

"Did you find the drugs?" Alex said with a snicker.

How ironic it was that around the same time she decided to start over completely, someone found her out.

"Drugs?" Jack repeated, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah," Alex said, handing Jack the envelope and stuffing her hands into the pockets of her jeans, "apparently I didn't appear to want to go along with the plan, so some of the guys he was with drugged me."

"Like what?" Jack said, horrified at this new information. "A kidnapping."

Alex shrugged.

"Whatever you want to call it."

She turned and continued walking towards the beach, forgetting all about staying at the caves.

"What was the plan?" Jack asked, curiously, stopping her.

Alex stopped, but didn't turn around.

"It was his plan," she began quietly, "we went to Europe for a week, and ran out of money."

"Why were you in Europe?" Jack tried asking, but Alex ignored him.

"We needed to get out of the country," she continued, speaking so softly that Jack could hardly hear her, "so he got us a job on that ship. Thought we'd rob it. He got together a gang to help us and by the end of the night-"

She turned around and looked at Jack, somewhat pained about the story she was telling.

"We had stolen over twenty-six thousand dollars," Alex finished, and Jack let out a low whistle, "we only ended up getting some of it though. Some guys came after us, we jumped the ship and a couple of those guys he had hired to help us were waiting for us in this motor boat. I jumped too close though, and that's how I got this-"

Alex showed him a scar just above her wrist that Jack had never noticed before, but knew that now he would recognize it every time he looked at her.

"But if it makes you feel any better," she went on, dropping her hand, "I took no part in the robbery. I just kind of stood on the sides while they stashed away the money."

"I should've known, you know," Jack said, "when you said you'd never been on a plane."

"I guess I thought that you'd never catch on," Alex said with a smile, "you seemed kind of slow."

"Funny," Jack snorted.

"Well," Alex said, looking for an excuse out of the conversation, "I guess I'll see you around."

"Yeah," Jack said.

He wanted to ask more about her past, or at least get some clues, but Jack didn't want to push her, as he had made the mistake of doing so to Kate a few times. They parted, going there separate ways.

(Space)

Shannon found Boone sitting at a fire by himself, near the jungle line. She sat down next to him, and handing him a plate of food(which was really an old paper plate with fruit and a small piece of fish on it).

"I figured you should eat," she said when Boone didn't acknowledge her presense, "you need the energy, out there with Locke all day and all."

That made Boone smile a little, and he took the food.

"Thanks."

He had declared that Shannon won the bet, though she said it was only because Boone felt bad about the asthma attack. And she was write. Of course, Boone hadn't told her that.

"So you and Sayid seemed to be on good terms," Shannon went on, tempted to keep talking to him.

"Sure," he mumbled.

"You know I still love you, right?" Shannon said, out of no where.

Boone looked at her. What exactly was that supposed to mean? Shannon rolled her eyes.

"As a sister, I mean," she assured, though it wasn't really all that assuring to Boone, "no matter what crazy secret you and Locke are keeping."

"Right," he muttered and added sarcastically, "love ya too."

"Good," Shannon said, satisfied, "and as a brother, right?"

Boone had to keep himself from biting his lip. Only he knew the truth on that one.

"Right," he lied.

Shannon stood up, but stopped just before leaving, remembering something else that she was going to mention.

"Oh, and by the way," she said in her usual snotty tone, "I know that you told Sayid what you and Locke have been up to. He saw what was in the hatch, and trust me- I'll find out."

"I'm sure you will," Boone said as if it didn't really bother him.

And it didn't, as long as Locke didn't come after him the next day.

"Goodnight Shannon," he said, making it clear that he wanted her to go away.

"Night," she said, rolling her eyes again as she walked away.

(Space)

Minutes earlier from nearby, Kate was watching Jack and Alex talk from a distance, barely able to make out there figures. She had learned shortly after Sawyer's leaving that his fire wasn't that far away from everyone else after all. Or, at least, not that far from Jack and Alex. She had gotten herself so into the game of trying to guess what they were saying that she didn't notice Charlie sneak up behind her.

"Star gazing or waiting for a date?" He said cheerfully as he invited himself to sit down beside her.

"More like people gazing," Kate replied, "any idea what Jack's talking to Alex about?"

"What?" Charlie said, looking there way. Then his expression turned to amusement. "Are you jealous?"

"Jealous?" Kate said with a snigger. "Of who? Alex or Jack?"

"Well he has been spending a lot of time with her," Charlie teased.

"Come on," Kate said in disbelief, trying to figure out if he were serious or not, "if he didn't, she'd just sit there and rot."

"Kind of like how you would?" Charlie spoke in a soft tone.

"Are you trying to make me feel better or something?" Kate really just wanted to be alone.

She didn't know why she felt this way. Take that back. Kate didn't know how she felt period. She knew that she loved Jack, and he loved her- or at least she thought he did. It seemed so long ago since he said it, and he hadn't since that night. They didn't exactly have a blooming relationship, and it was almost as though Jack was embarrassed to be seen with her around everyone else. He'd act all romantic and 'I'm there for you' when it was just the two of them, but with the rest of the group, it was as though any kind of relationship didn't exist. And what he did show, she had to hunt for. Of course, it wasn't really his fault. Jack was supposed to be "the leader" and "the hero", and he couldn't drop all that for her. She didn't want him to.

"Earth to Kate.."

Charlie's voice brought her back into reality.

"As I was saying," Charlie said in mock annoyance, "I just want you to know, that if Jack ever hurts you, you just come to me, all right?"

"Right," Kate said, rolling her eyes, "and what are you going to do? Play the guitar until his eardrums burst?"

"Well.." Charlie chimed, "that could work. But I was thinking more of Claire's horrible singing voice."

"Charlie!" Kate exclaimed, surprised that he would talk about Claire that way.

"I'm joking," Charlie said, "but seriously..never suggest a sing-a-long around her."

"I'm sure Claire's a fine singer," Kate sighed, and turned her gaze back to Jack.

Charlie followed her eyes, and watched the two chat with her for a little while.

"He seems great with kids," he commented, breaking the silence.

"Yeah," agreed Kate, "he probably would've been great with Claire's baby if-"

She trailed off, realizing what she was saying.

"Yeah," Charlie said quietly, the enthusiam suddenly drawn from his voice.

"Hey look," Kate said, feeling bad about bringing up the topic when Charlie seemed to be in such a good mood for a change, "you guys did your best-"

"I know," Charlie said, and after clamping his hands firmly on his knees, stood up, "I think I'm going to turn in. Tell Jack I said hey."

"I will," Kate said, and then turned back to Alex and Jack as he left.

She watched them for a few more seconds and then felt guilty about butting into Jack's private life. Tomorrow, Kate told herself, she'd talk to Jack; but first, she was going to go after Sawyer and make sure that he didn't do anything stupid.

Author's Note: Ah, another ending. I have to sadly say that the next fic won't have a lot of Jate in it(if I do the on-island one, that is) but don't worry, the one after them are full of it. I thought that Sawyer deserved some much-needed attention, and I miss writing him. Thanks you guys for sticking around! You guys rock! (hugs) If you go to lost-forums, make sure that you look for my 'Fated' banner, advertising my series.

Okay, this is where the people get to voice there opinions(but please, in replies, describe which one you pick, don't just say 'I like number 1 and number 2 because I'll forget what they said):

Choices! Choices! Choices!

1. I do a Sawyer-centric on-island fic, along with a Shannon/Boone/Sayid plot where Shannon secretly reads Boone's journal that she steals(yes, he keeps a journal!).

2. Same Sawyer fic, but Sayid reads the journal. I kind of like this one, because of all the Locke stuff, but we all know what Sayid said about Charlie reading Claire's diary.

3. Same Sawyer fic, but with working in a plot of Shannon finding Nadia's pictures, which I actually meant to do in this fic but..um..forgot.

4. An off-island fic, picking up where "Famous Last Words" left off, centered around Sawyer, Kate, Jack, and their apartment life with many visits from Sarah and baby Kate.

I'll try to incorporate titles to the fics more, which I didn't do in this story. I meant to use 'forget me no' with the Shayid thing, but um..I did forget. How ironic. I'm terribly sorry about that, I haven't done that great of a job with that lately, mostly because I'm running out of title ideas. Speaking of which..

Which title sounds better for this fic:

A patient of Jack's has a past connection to Sawyer, and a journal spills some secrets- and island secrets- that should've stayed hidden. Or should they?(or the plot with Shannon, Sayid, and Nadia- I have to tell you, I think I'm doing the journal thing because of how I'm planning the beginning).

The Last Goodbye

or

Falling Up

I kinda wanted to use "Falling Up" for a fic with a Jack plot, but the ones I have for him already have titles. Both titles with probably be used at one point or another.

I also need help with a Sawyer flashback..any ideas? I want it to deal with Hibbs and "the Tampa job"- whatever that's supposed to mean. I kinda have one, but it's a little foggy.

Here's the summary for the off-island fic which..um..doesn't have a title either. Maybe I'll use "Falling Up" for it..

Jack deals with issues with an ex-wife, while Sawyer deals with past issues of his own. J/K with Sawyer. Post-island.

That's not much of a summary, so let me narrow it down. The whole thing with Sawyer killing that guy in Australia comes back to haunt him, and Sarah gives Jack a lot of trouble, everything from parenting responsibilities(too much of them for a busy doctor like Jack), custody issues(kind of the same thing, I guess) and all at the same time she has this crazy idea of getting the two of them back together. Let's just say that Jack gets into some trouble in this fic, but only because it's all put on his shoulders first.

Well if anyone read all that, I'd love your advise/suggestions.

Thanks again and I really hope to see you guys back for the next fic, whatever that one might be(hm..sounds like "Whatever the Case May Be"..okay, now the night's getting to me..). Just look for my screen name! YOU GUYS ROCK!

Until next time..

October Sky


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